Baha'i Community Welcomes UN Condemnation of Iran's Human Rights Record

On Thursday, December 1, the senior representative of the Baha'i International Community at the United Nations expressed that the "important resolution" passed by the UN General Assembly's Third Committee brought "joy to the Baha'i community worldwide." On Wednesday, November 30, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly condemned the "human rights record of the [Islamic Republic] of Iran" and referred to the "dire situation of minorities in Iran, including the oppressed Baha'i community." The resolution emphasized the "ongoing severe restrictions and increasing prohibitions" imposed by the Islamic Republic in Iran regarding the "right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief" and criticized the "Iranian government for 45 years of institutionalized discrimination, arbitrary detention, destruction of property, and other forms of repression." According to the Third Committee's emphasis, the Islamic Penal Code, which underlies these judicial actions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, "criminalizes the religious activities of non-Muslims and exposes both official and unofficial religious minorities, such as the Baha'i community, to baseless criminal charges." The resolution noted that in recent months, "Baha'is have been arrested and tried without witnesses or evidence based on these legal provisions." Bani Dugal, the senior representative of the Baha'i International Community at the UN, stated that "the reaffirmation of this important UN resolution by the Third Committee brings joy to the Baha'i community worldwide." He emphasized that the Islamic Republic "has never acknowledged the truth regarding these concerns nor adhered to its human rights obligations under international law," while "Baha'is and all vulnerable minorities in Iran deserve the right to live with dignity and freedom, and the Iranian government must respect these rights." Anisa Samian, a Baha'i citizen whose family members have been arrested and imprisoned in Iran, and who herself has been forced to leave the country with her husband and child, told Voice of America that "despite her love for her homeland, she was forced to leave Iran to ensure her small children would not be left without guardians." This Baha'i citizen pointed out the history of pressure on Baha'is since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, stating, "Since the Islamic Republic took power in Iran, Baha'is have always been under pressure, and we have faced discrimination in schools and been deprived of education since childhood, and this pressure has always been with us." The draft resolution approved by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly was presented to the General Assembly at the suggestion of Canada and addresses various issues such as "increased executions, arbitrary detentions, suppression of protesters, and violations of women's rights." According to the Iranian Human Rights Activists' Network, the Islamic Republic executed at least 133 individuals in November 2023 alone. This statistic comes amid claims from human rights organizations active regarding Iran that responsible institutions and media often do not report executions in Iranian prisons. Raha Bahreini, a researcher on Iran at Amnesty International, previously emphasized that the Islamic Republic uses the death penalty to instill fear and terror in society, stating, "The situation of executions in Iran has always been horrific, and since the rise of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, we have entered a darker period."