UN vote condemning human rights abuses welcomed by Australian Baha’is
Canberra, 20 Dec 2011
The UN Headquarters buildings in New York City. The UN General Assembly yesterday condemned Iran for oppressing its citizens.UN Photo/Mark Garten.
The Australian Baha'i Community has welcomed a United Nations resolution adopted yesterday which expresses “deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations” in Iran.
The resolution, passed by the biggest margin in nearly two decades of such votes, condemns a range of human rights violations including discrimination against members of the Baha’i Faith.
Australian Baha’i community spokesperson Natalie Mobini said the UN resolution was a very welcome move.
“We are particularly grateful to the Australian Government for being one of 42 co-sponsors of this resolution,” Dr Mobini said.
“Our community is pleased to see that the resolution condemns in such strong terms a wide range of abuses,” she said.
“Those abuses include continuing discrimination against minorities, including members of the Baha’i Faith, a dramatic increase in executions, the use of torture, the systematic targeting of human rights defenders, and pervasive violence against women.”
About Baha'is in particular, the resolution noted "escalating attacks on Baha'is and their defenders”.
It reported "a significant increase in the number of Baha'is arrested and detained" and "renewed measures to deny Baha'is employment in the public and private sectors”.
Dr Mobini noted that seven Baha’i leaders, first jailed in 2008, remain imprisoned in appalling conditions despite the lack of any evidence of illegal activity.
“In addition, seven Baha'i educators in Iran have each received four- or five-year prison sentences for their involvement in an informal community initiative, known as the Baha'i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), which provides tertiary education to young Baha’is, who are banned from university.
“In addition there are 88 other Baha’is in prison for their faith, and many more awaiting trial.
These violations against the Baha’is in Iran are part of a systematic effort by the Iranian Government to eliminate as a viable entity the 300,000-strong Baha’i community, the biggest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran.”
Dr Mobini said the Australian Baha’is, who include relatives of persecuted Baha’is in Iran, were grateful not only to the Australian Government for co-sponsoring the UN resolution but also to the Federal and State Parliaments and individual MPs for speaking out against the persecution.
Earlier this month, Australian MP Michael Danby was part of a group of international lawmakers who raised the situation of Baha’i educators and students in a joint statement. The other signatories were US Senators Mark Kirk and Joseph Lieberman, Canadian MP Irwin Cotler, British MP Denis MacShane, Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein, and Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris.
For a full report on the resolution, visit the Baha'i World News Service.