Mr. President,

Summary and arbitrary executions are horrendous human rights violations that continue to affect the people of Iran. Such heinous acts were the lot of the Baha’is at the inception of the Faith in the middle of the nineteenth century, when over 20,000 individuals were brutally killed because the religious authorities could not tolerate this new religion. They were also part of the day-to-day reality of numerous Baha’i families in the early years of the Islamic Republic. However, thanks to the pressure of the international community, including resolutions such as the one presented at this session of the Council, Baha’is have not been executed for two decades, although the prevailing state-sponsored campaign of incitement to hatred has led to a number of vicious murders, which have rarely been dealt with justly.

Nevertheless, the facade of this decrease in executions against Baha’is conceals a more insidious reality:

Think of a family whose members have been prohibited from accessing higher education for two, sometimes three, generations. Some of the same family members are banned from working in the public sector because of state policy and have been dismissed from employment because of coercive actions by the Ministry of Information. Other family members have even had their agricultural lands unlawfully seized and crops destroyed. All of this simply because they are Baha’is. And when finally, they resort to establishing their own private small businesses in order to earn a living, these are shut down and sealed on the pretext that they are closed in observance of Baha’i Holy Days and their business licenses are revoked.

Mr. President, what I have briefly described is the Iranian authorities premeditated and well-orchestrated scheme to suffocate an entire religious community and to destroy them as a viable entity in Iranian society.