“A policy of systematic persecution”, this is how the Special Rapporteurs on Iran, on freedom of religion and on minorities have described the persecution the Bahá’ís face in Iran. Although this persecution has been going on for over four decades, recent months have witnessed an unprecedented escalation, taking us back to the overt form this persecution took in the earlier years of the Islamic Revolution, a time when forces were unleashed to eliminate the Bahá’í community in Iran. The only difference is that today, the authorities in Iran, aware that the world is watching, cloak these cases under a fig leaf of legality which has been achieved through the adoption and enforcement of laws blatantly violating Iran’s international human rights obligations and even its own constitutional provisions.

In the past six weeks, there have been 274 separate incidents of persecution, including tens of arrests and imprisonments, dozens of instances of destruction of homes and confiscation of properties, beatings, raids on private and business premises in all corners of the country, and again the denial of higher education to more than one hundred young people this year -- youth whose parents, and sometimes grandparents, have also been denied this opportunity.

How much longer do we have to wait? How much more suffering has to be witnessed before the Iranian government realises that the prosperity of its country will only be achieved through the full participation of all its citizens. We ask the international community to call on the government of Iran to immediately stop the despicable religious persecution of the Bahá’ís.