Madam Vice President,

A woman sits in a cemetery holding the shattered pieces of her son's gravestone in her hands, is the last traces left of his memory. His grave has been desecrated. His remains removed with disrespect. Why? Because she's a Baháʼí, as was her son. After years of persecution faced by her family only for being Baháʼís, prison, expulsion from university, denial of employment and exclusion in all areas of life.

Now, even in death, her son is not spared, and her family's grief is doubled by the indignity imposed on his only physical remains. The Baháʼís in Iran, the largest religious minority, are denied not only the right to live as citizens, but even the right to die in peace, a ruthlessness the Iranian government justifies by labeling them as apostates.

Today, we ask the Iranian government, what threat do the dead pose to society? How do you justify your acts in your conscience knowing that even in death you do not leave Baháʼís alone? Imposing brutality on them even in their grief no religious or cultural norm could ever support such cruelty. The fact finding mission in this report documented an increase in the persecution against religious minorities.

The Baháʼí community, a long suffering group, is one such example. The FFM and any future mechanism must hold Iran accountable for its four decade inhumane treatment of Baháʼís, which will forever remain a stain on the Islamic Republic's recorded history.