The Bahá’í Community of Canada’s national governing body, the National Spiritual Assembly, expressed its appreciation today of the adoption of a strong resolution yesterday by the United Nations General Assembly calling attention to the human rights situation in Iran. The resolution calls attention to the ongoing, systematic persecution of the Bahá’ís of that country. The resolution was put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 41 other countries.
The Bahá’í World News Service report on the passage of the resolution follows:
United Nations, 19 December 2007 (BWNS) — The United Nations General Assembly yesterday adopted a resolution expressing “deep concern” about “ongoing systematic violations of human rights” in Iran.
Adopted by a final vote of 73 to 53, with 55 abstentions, the resolution took note of repression and persecution aimed by the Iranian government at groups ranging from women and women’s rights defenders to the news media and labor groups, as well as various ethnic and religious minorities, including Bahá’ís.
“We are happy that the General Assembly, the most globally representative body of United Nations, has seen fit once again this year to call attention to the dire situation in Iran, where Bahá’ís and other groups continue to face oppression and persecution by the government,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations.
“Our hope now is that the Iranian government will heed the opinion of the international community and stop the systematic violation of human rights directed against its own people,” said Ms. Dugal.
The resolution, put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 41 other countries, describes the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran, expressing “serious concern” about “confirmed instances” of “torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including flogging and amputations”; public executions, including stoning, and “arrests, violent repression, and sentencing of women exercising their right to peaceful assembly, a campaign of intimidation against women’s human rights defenders, and continuing discrimination against women and girls.”
The resolution, the 20th on Iran since 1985, also notes “increasing discrimination and other human rights violations against persons belonging to religious, ethnic, linguistic or other minorities” including Arabs, Azeris, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis and Sunni Muslims and Bahá’ís.
Regarding Bahá’ís, the resolution notes particularly that there have been “attacks on Bahá’ís and their faith in State-sponsored media, increasing evidence of efforts by the State to identify and monitor Bahá’ís and prevention of (Bahá’ís) from attending university and from sustaining themselves economically; an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention.”