Mr. Chairman,

The Bahá’í International Community continues to be deeply concerned by the state-driven and organized systematic persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran, now entering its forty-fourth year.

New incarcerations are on the rise. Only last week, five Bahá’ís were imprisoned in Tehran and Shiraz, solely because of their religious beliefs and without due process. Moreover, there are now more than a thousand Bahá'ís waiting for lengthy periods of time - in some cases even years - between their initial arrests, their legal hearings and their summons to prison causing devastation to innocent people’s lives. The punitive bails and the limbo created by these pending verdicts is adding yet another form of heavy psychological pressure and unbearable financial burden on these already wronged individuals.

Also of particular concern is the rising trend of confiscation of properties belonging to Iranian Bahá’ís. This is not new. However, the Iranian authorities are now increasingly using the legal system to seize and transfer the Bahá’í properties to further enrich the parastatal organization called the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (also known as Setad), which is entirely controlled by the highest levels of Iran’s leadership.

The international community must call upon the Iranian government to honour its pledges to this Council and once and for all allow the Bahá’ís of Iran to live and practice their faith freely along with all Iranians.