Mr. President,

The Iranian government has arrested, summoned and tried over 110 Baha’is this year alone – even as it struggles with ongoing economic and health crises. The crack down is just the latest in a campaign of persecution that continues as relentlessly now as in the earliest days of the Islamic Revolution more than 40 years ago.

The Baha’is are Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. More than 200 Baha’is were killed after the Revolution and many thousands have been arbitrarily arrested. The psychological burden carried by innocent detainees, and the entire community, over four decades, is impossible to measure.

A 1991 memorandum, signed by the Supreme Leader himself, described a systematic and state-sponsored programme to block the progress and development of the Baha’i community.

Baha’is are excluded from public sector jobs and denied access to universities. The authorities also close their businesses and revoke their commercial licenses as part of a sinister program of economic strangulation.

State media and clerics spread propaganda against the Baha’is to create an environment of hatred and fear. And even Baha’i cemeteries are desecrated by the authorities.

As a matter of belief and moral practice, Baha’is tell the truth about their faith. This very honesty of the Baha’is is used as an instrument with which to oppress the community.

Iran’s government wants to destroy the Baha’is as a viable part of society. The international community must therefore hold Iran to account, expose its misdeeds, and call on it to respect the rights of the Baha’is and all its citizens.