House of Representatives urges Iran to protect human rights of Baha’is

Melissa Parke MP

The debate on the motion, which was supported by Government and Opposition MPs, took place in the chamber of the House of Representatives of Australia.

The motion specifically calls on the Iranian MPs to investigate the denial of access to higher education to Baha’is and others for reasons other than academic ability, and to seek a judicial review of trials of prisoners of conscience, including those of seven former Baha’i leaders and human rights defenders and lawyers.

In moving the motion yesterday, the MP for Fremantle, Melissa Parke, noted that the subject of human rights in Iran was last debated in the Federal Parliament on 15 November 2010.

“Since that time, the number, range and frequency of serious human rights violations has increased,” Ms Parke said.

“In 2011, Iran was cited repeatedly, including by the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the major international human rights NGOs for violating international human rights law," she said.

Ms Parke also noted the September 2011 report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon which outlined eight areas in which the Iranian government was committing serious, systematic violations against the human rights of its own people, including the failure to protect freedom of religion.

Addressing the topic of religious persecution, Ms Parke said that despite the apparent tolerance towards religions in the constitution, Human Rights Watch in 2012 documented cases of severe discrimination and persecution of Iran’s religious and ethnic minorities, including Sunni Muslims, converts to Christianity and Arabs.

“But the Iranian state has perhaps been most savage in its oppression of the Baha’is, who are the largest non-Muslim religious minority in Iran and who are not recognised in the constitution because Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith, came after the Prophet Mohammed,” said Ms Parke.

“Baha’is believe in the unity of religion and humankind, and in harmony between science and religion,” said Ms Parke, who noted that many Baha’is lived in Australia including in her own electorate and surrounding areas.

“They have an elected leadership and promote equality between men and women,” said Ms Parke.

“In my experience, they are gentle and peace loving people, so it is difficult to understand the degree of hostility by the authorities in Iran towards them.”

The number of Baha’is imprisoned due to their Faith had doubled during the past year. The prisoners included seven Baha’i leaders who had been held in appalling conditions since 2008. They had received 20 year sentences after brief court sessions characterised by a lack of due process, as noted by the UN Secretary General.

“Several of these prisoners have immediate family members who are Australian citizens—brother, sister, aunts, nephews and nieces, who wonder if they will ever see their loved ones again.

“Among the Baha’i prisoners are a group of educators, referred to in the motion, who have been sentenced to prison terms of four and five years for the purported crime of providing education to young people who are barred from accessing Iran’s universities on the basis of their religion.”

Ms Parke said one of the imprisoned educators was the brother of an Australian citizen, a longstanding resident of Dubbo.

The 100 Baha’is currently in prison in Iran  “represent a tiny portion of the many thousands of Baha’is who have been subjected to physical assaults, intimidation and questioning, property searches and confiscation, monitoring of their bank accounts, movement and activities, denial of work and education and even  the desecration and destruction of graves and cemeteries.”

‘Blood-curdling response’

The member for Wills, Mr Kelvin Thomson MP, noted a claim by an Iranian representative in the UN that the Baha’i organisation in Iran was political rather than religious, that it was illegal and that its organisation had been ‘closed’.

“This quite blood-curdling response clearly displays a contempt for the basic concepts of freedom of speech and expression, including freedom of religious expression,” Mr Thomson said.

The member for Cowan, Mr Luke Simpkins MP, said the Iranian government scapegoated the Baha’is and sought to establish a link between the Baha’is and the Israeli Government, when there was not one.

The member for Melbourne Ports, Mr Michael Danby MP, referred in his comments to the “terrible abuse of people of the very gentle Baha’i religion”.

The member for Higgins, Ms Kelly O’Dwyer MP, said she stood together with somebody from the opposite side of the chamber in condemning human rights abuses in Iran.

“There must be no more serious and heinous act in this world than a government turning on its own people and committing violent atrocities on its own citizenry.”

Welcome

Australian Baha’i Community spokesperson Natalie Mobini said the motion was a very welcome development.

“This motion, which follows others in 2010 and 2009, demonstrates that the serious attacks on the human rights of Baha’is and others in Iran will not go unnoticed,” Dr Mobini said.

“Our community has immediate relatives of some of those unjustly imprisoned and they will be heartened at this forthright motion from our nation’s MPs,” she said.

“It is time for the Iranian authorities to listen to world opinion and to cease their persecution of a totally innocent religious community in their country.”

Read the motion and transcript of the debate here.