Mr. President,

Mr. Javad Larijani, the Secretary General of Iranian High Council for Human Rights, said, during this session’s High Level Segment:

“It is quite hard to imagine a system of governance which deprives its citizens from the very basic and minimal rights to participate in shaping their destiny and at the same time to claim adherence to human rights and its promotion.”

We must say, we could not agree more. It is, indeed, hard to imagine how Mr. Larijani could speak of human rights at the UN while back home, in Iran, the government systematically persecutes an entire community for their belief in the Bahá'í Faith. It is hard to imagine how his government can claim to uphold human rights when, in January of this year, 25 Bahá'ís in northern Iran were sentenced to prison terms of between six and eleven years just for being Bahá'ís. In the court verdict which handed down their sentences, it actually stated that belief in the Bahá'í prophet is, in itself, considered propaganda against the regime of the Islamic Republic. What more proof is needed than this?

Mr. President,

The Human Rights Council stands for the high ideals of justice and human rights. Those in positions of power are responsible for implementing laws that, as Mr. Larijani said, ensure citizens have access to basic rights that allows them to participate in the life of their communities. Sadly, the Bahá'ís in Iran have, for more than 30 years, been deprived of their most fundamental rights. They are not allowed to enter universities. Bahá'ís cannot hold public service jobs, their private businesses attacked and they are imprisoned without reason and their cemeteries are destroyed. The government, on a daily basis, spreads lies and accusations against them through the state controlled mass media, not allowing them even one chance to respond.

The Bahá'ís in Iran ask for no special privileges, but only for their rights, and they hope that the international community will continue to put pressure on the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to put an end to this unjust discrimination