The international response

he international community has responded to the persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran with overwhelming sympathy, expressing concern for the Bahá’ís and condemnation of the Iranian government. The Bahá’í community believes that this outpouring has been a strong restraining force against the government, preventing a pogrom on a much greater scale.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has passed more than 20 resolutions expressing concern about reports of human rights violations in Iran, and each has made specific mention of the situation of the Bahá’í community there. [See Appendix II]. The specific reference to a religious community is quite unusual for the Commission, which normally confines itself to expressions of diplomatic concern and general references to charges of human rights violations and discrimination.

Following the lead of the Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations General Assembly itself has since 1985 approved some 17 resolutions that have specifically mentioned the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran and expressed concern over reports of human rights violations there.

Diane Ala’i, a Bahá’í International Community representative to the United Nations, addresses the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. High Resolution Image >

Virtually all of these resolutions have called on Iran to stop violating the rights of Bahá’ís and to abide by the various international covenants on human rights that the government has freely signed. UN resolutions have also called explicitly for the “emancipation” of the Bahá’ís of Iran.

Among the most salient features of the United Nations’ attention to the Bahá’í case has been the continuing investigations conducted by a succession of highly regarded human rights specialists. Each was appointed by the Commission on Human Rights and given the mandate to probe into the human rights situation in Iran. And each has reported extensively on the real and serious nature of the persecution of the Bahá’ís of Iran, lending unimpeachable credibility to the Bahá’í case.

The first Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights, as these investigators are called, was Andres Aguilar of Venezuela, who was appointed in 1984. After his resignation in 1986, Reynaldo Galindo Pohl, a law professor and human rights expert from El Salvador, was appointed to the position. Following Mr. Galindo Pohl’s departure in 1994, the Commission appointed Maurice Copithorne, a noted Canadian jurist, as its Special Representative for Iran. Unfortunately, as part of an effort to engage Iran in a “human rights dialogue,” the Commission on Human Rights stopped appointing Special Representatives in 2002. And in many respects, the situation has grown worse since that time.

Nevertheless, the Commission’s Special Representatives have produced over the years a series of extremely important and influential reports to the United Nations on the situation in Iran. Gathering their information from a variety of sources and — in at least four cases — making visits to Iran, Special Representatives have managed to catalogue the whole range of abuses and persecutions which the Bahá’í community in Iran has experienced.

For example, Mr. Galindo Pohl’s 1990 report to the General Assembly noted that he had received extensive documentation that provides “evidence of discrimination, confiscation, rejection by universities, suspension of pensions, demands for the return of pensions earned and paid, denial of passports and other irregularities.”

The report added that “it would seem that the attitude towards the Bahá’ís and their situation depends on the temperament and personal convictions of individual officials. This keeps the Bahá’ís in a perpetual state of uncertainty about their activities.”

In Mr. Copithorne’s 1998 report to the General Assembly, he wrote that continuing reports of violations of human rights against the Bahá’ís force him “to conclude that the pattern of persecution of members of this community has not abated.”

And in his last report, released in 2002, Mr. Copithorne said that while there had been “some hopeful signs” concerning the “commutation of death sentences” and “the release of prisoners,” the Bahá’í community “continues to be subject to harassment and discrimination in the areas of, inter alia, education, employment, travel, housing and the enjoyment of cultural activities.” Seven Bahá’ís were in prison at that time, he said, and “Bahá’í property continues to be subject to confiscation.”

Of interest, Mr. Copithorne also expressed a conviction that the “Bahá’í Question” policy is still operative.

Also of concern is the sentence issued by a judge of the Supreme Office of Control and Review, Hamzih Khalili, on 15 September 2001, in the context of an appeal by the Muslim owners of property rented to the Baha’is that was confiscated in 1998. According to an unofficial translation to which the Special Representative has had access, the verdict declares that the “seizure and confiscation of the properties belonging to the misguided sect of Baha’ism is legally and religiously justifiable” and states that “the cultural activities of the misguided sect of Baha’ism — as prescribed by the order of His Excellency the Supreme Leader — do need to be seriously opposed”. This would seem to indicate that the 1991 memorandum on “The Baha’i Question”, issued by the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council and approved by the Supreme Leader, is still in force and therefore that discrimination against Baha’is continues to be official practice, a situation the Special Representative deeply deplores.

As well, in 1996, United Nations support for the Bahá’í case was further strengthened by the release of a report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, which called on Iran to end its ban on Bahá’í institutions and other oppressive measures. Authored by Professor Abdelfattah Amor, a noted Tunisian legal expert, the report explicitly stated that the persecution of the Bahá’ís was based on religious intolerance.

More recently, in 2003, the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance took note of the continuing confiscations, imprisonments, and efforts to block Bahá’í youth from receiving higher education, and concluded:

While noting some promised improvements in treatment of the Baha’i minority, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that the measures taken by the Iranian authorities to end the persecution of Baha’is, including by non-State entities, and to guarantee them the same rights as any other Iranian citizen are still inadequate. He again reminds the Iranian authorities of the need to ensure respect for the relevant provisions of international law, including article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. In addition, as a religious minority, Baha’is are entitled to the respect due to all other religious minorities.

In addition to efforts by the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies and agencies, numerous national legislatures and regional bodies have spoken out against Iran’s treatment of the Bahá’í community over the last twenty years. Expressions of concern for Iran’s Bahá’ís have come from the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, and from the legislatures of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, among others. Many heads of state and government leaders have also voiced their dismay over Iran’s treatment of the Bahá’ís.

International and national non-governmental organizations have also risen to the defense of Iran’s Bahá’ís. Amnesty International, the Minority Rights Group, and Middle East Watch, among others, have closely monitored the situation of the Bahá’ís in Iran and published extensive reports that confirm the persecutions there.

The world’s news media, as well, have reported extensively on the persecution of Iran’s Bahá’í community. Major articles and editorials which detail, confirm and condemn the persecutions have appeared in Le Monde, the Times of London, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Economist, the Times of India, and the Sydney Morning Herald — as well as smaller and lesser known newspapers such as the Uganda Times, the Papua New Guinea Post Courier, the Straits Times of Singapore, and La Republica in Panama City. The Associated Press, Reuters, and the Agence France-Presse have also carried numerous dispatches on the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran and the response of international organizations and agencies.

In many respects the Bahá’í case has been a model for how international human rights machinery can be used to protect an oppressed minority. Thanks to international support for the Bahá’ís, the wholesale genocide of the Bahá’í community in Iran has so far been prevented.