In recent days the United Nations (UN) General Assembly’s Third Committee heard several strong rebukes from UN Member States and Special Rapporteurs regarding the 45-year systematic persecution of the Baha’i community in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Third Committee, also known as the Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee, focuses on human rights, humanitarian affairs, and social issues. The sessions also come as UN Member States prepare to vote on an annual General Assembly resolution on the Islamic Republic’s human rights record.

The latest interventions at the UN follows a joint letter by 18 UN experts condemning a rise in attacks on Baha’i women in Iran—highlighting the intersectional targeting they face both as women and as members of a persecuted religious minority.

UN Special Rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate, monitor, and report on specific human rights violations worldwide. Holding mandates on the rights of women and girls, freedom of religion or belief, peaceful assembly, education, freedom of opinion and expression, and many others, as well as country-specific mandates on states of special concern such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the experts serve to report on human rights concerns and to convey these to national governments.

A new report by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, also noted that “Individuals and communities around the world continued to be targeted by intolerance, discrimination and violence based on religion or belief. Minorities, in particular, faced threats to their places of worship, their livelihoods and even their lives. Divisive rhetoric and negative stereotyping led to stigmatization of communities in the reporting period, while online hate speech may fuel real-life violence.”

Widespread concern over Iran’s human rights record

Professor Mai Sato, the new UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, said during her Third Committee interactive dialogue that “Ethnic and religious minorities in Iran face systematic discrimination … including arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and disproportionate application of the death penalty,” adding that she intended to continue using an “intersectional approach” to human rights concerns over the course of her mandate.

The Special Rapporteur also addressed the plight of women in Iran, in particular, and “called on the Islamic Republic of Iran to release human rights defenders including women’s rights activists and to provide access to timely and appropriate health care to incarcerated human rights defenders. The denial of medical care should not be used to punish and silence prisoners.”

Professor Sato added that she had “received reports of family members and other individuals close to human rights defenders who have been targeted to silence them.”

In response to the Special Rapporteur’s findings, the United Kingdom voiced its own concern over the “alarming escalation” in the targeting of Baha’i women, who now represent two-thirds of all Baha’i detainees in Iran. Australia joined in condemning Iran’s “institutionalized discrimination and marginalization” of ethnic and religious minorities, including the Baha’is, while Ireland decried pervasive discrimination against Baha’is across “all facets of life.”

Ireland also called on Iran to amend its penal code articles 499 bis and 500 bis—which criminalize expressions of belief for unrecognized religious minorities, for example the Baha’is—to protect freedom of religion, belief, and expression according to international human right law.

Canada, Czechia, Israel and the United States also voiced concerns over the rights and well-being of religious minorities during their interventions at Professor Sato’s session. And the European Union (EU) delegate, speaking on behalf of all 27 member states, said “The EU remains seriously concerned about the continued discrimination, in law and in practice, and repression of women and girls and ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities.”

Failures in the freedom of religion or belief

During the session with Professor Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Dr. Ghanea said it was “timely to focus on the right to peace and the freedom to religion or belief,” adding that the UN Summit of the Future, which took place in September, “drew attention to the importance of interreligious and intercultural dialogue, eradicating religious discrimination and intolerance, and the important role of faith-based organizations in contributing to our common challenges.”

Ireland also made a significant intervention at Dr. Ghanea’s session, saying “Too often religion is misused in a way that denies our common humanity, something that goes against the grain of many genuine religious beliefs. We continue to witness an alarming rise in acts of religious hatred and persecution globally … those belonging to minority faiths such as the Baha’i people continue to face serious persecution for their beliefs.”

Poland also called on the international community to address religious discrimination and to promote respect and dialogue across faiths. And Malta reiterated its support for religious freedom.

Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, meanwhile, which holds the country’s UN membership while de facto Houthi authorities control much of the country, also said at Professor Ghanea’s session that, in the past decade, “systematic violations perpetrated by the Houthi militias have multiplied against the Baha’i citizens in Yemen. Their faith is being threatened with death threats and displacements. We must reinforce the principle of equality amongst our citizens.”

In a separate interactive dialogue, Professor Alexandra Xanthaki, Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, condemned Iran’s policies barring Baha’is from sports, saying that “Baha’i believers are prohibited from competing in sports and sentenced if found to have done so.” Professor Xanthaki even addressed Iran directly, in session, saying “Iran, I was hoping for an answer on the exclusion of Baha’i athletes,” as well as other issues affecting women athletes in the country.

Background

• In a recent development affecting Baha’i women in Iran, on 21 October, 10 Baha’i women in Isfahan were sentenced to a combined total of 90 years in prison, huge fines, and property confiscations, travel bans, and other restrictions.

• During March and April 2024, at least 72 of 93 Baha’is summoned to court or prison, or more than three-quarters, were women. Recent months have seen even a further rise in the attacks against Baha’i women.

• A mother in Shiraz was arrested in the presence of her two-year-old child. A second mother of a four-year-old, in Tabriz, was arrested despite her father’s hospitalization in intensive care. Two other women, meanwhile, one in Fardis and another in Urmia, were arrested by intelligence agents; the belongings of one were seized. Additionally, a Baha’i woman and her husband from Gorgan were arrested at their home by 10 agents from the Ministry of Intelligence and have been detained in an unknown location.

• Twenty-six Baha’is, 16 of them women, received sentences totaling 126 years in prison, signaling the continued targeting of women across the Baha’i community.

• Six more Baha’i women from Isfahan were detained for a month, facing harsh conditions in the quarantine ward of Dolat Abad prison. Deliberate delays in access to medical care or warm water, denial of information about the reasons for their arrests or the charges against them, showcase the Iranian government’s harsh new tactics against the Baha’i community.

• The Iranian government’s oppressive measures against the Baha’is are rooted in the 1991 “Baha'i Question” memorandum, signed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which called for the “progress and development” of the Bahá’í community to be “blocked”. Measures against the Baha’is were further entrenched through additional official government policy documents targeting the Baha’is which have come to light, in 2006, 2007 and 2020, underscoring a long-standing effort to suppress the Baha’i community.

• In Yemen, meanwhile, where a few thousand Yemeni Baha’is live, the community has faced persecution since 2008 and still endures harassment and imprisonment under de facto Houthi rule. In May 2023, armed Houthi gunmen raided a Baha’i gathering, detaining 17 individuals, including five women. The final releases of these 17 individuals occurred only earlier this year. Six other long-jailed Yemeni Baha’is were released in 2020 after several years of captivity following an incident when over 60 people, including women and children, were arrested by Houthi forces.