Baha’i International Community — Question of Missing and Dissappeared Persons — Oral Statement to Commission on Human Rights — 37th Session

          
          BAHAf INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
          4CU IN TED NATZO S PLAZA • NEW VORX. N.Y. I00I . U.S.A.
          Cable: BAHA!NTCt)M NE'aYOR Telex & ‘ ICNY
          (2l2 1 486O5 O
          to the Un red Nanons
          Dr. Viriur de Arlulo
          Alternate Rept 'eattative
          Mr. Gcr ld Knight
          QUESTION OF MISSING AND DISAPPEARED PERSONS
          Oral statement 2res n ted to the Commission on Human Rights
          at its thirty—seventh session; Geneva, Switzerland
          — Agenda item 10(b) —
          Mr. Chairman:
          The Bah 'I International Community is grateful to the Commission for this op—
          portunity to make a brief statement on the disappearance of a number of promi-
          nent Bah 'Is in Iran.
          Three were kidnapped between Nay 1979 and January 1980. Eleven others, includ-
          ing all nine members of the national.administrative council of the Bah '1s in
          Iran, were summarily arrested by Revolutionary Guardsmen at a private home in
          Tehran on 21 August 1980. The members of the families of these Bah 'fs have
          made every effort to locate their loved ones and have taken every possible op-
          portunity to make inquiries of the authorities. The appeals of the families
          have so far gone unheeded, and it is because of the acute anxiety of the fami-
          lies involved that we have decided to take this opportunity, to raise this mat-
          ter in this distinguished international forum. Through you, Mr. Chairman, we
          now repeat our appeal to the government of Iran, which, we feel sure, has it
          within its power to locate these disappeared persons.
          The details of this situation, including all the approaches to officials, have
          now been filed with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
          We have also presented to the Working Group, at its request, extensive informa-
          tion on the background to this situation, but we would like, with your permis
          sion, Mr. Chairman, to give the Commission a very brief summary of this
          background.
          Since the start of the recent revolution, prominent Bah 'Is in many parts of
          Iran have been arrested (and, in some cases, executed) as part of a continuing
          and systematic campaign to demoralize, paralyze, and ultimately eradicate the
          Iranian Bahi'I community.
          Although Iran's 300,000 Bah ' s are indigenous Iranians and constitute the
          largest religious minority in the country, they are denied recognition under
          the new ConstltutiOD (which recognizes the smaller Christian, Jewish, and
          Accredited ii i cun iltaci c status ith the United Nations EconomiC ncl Social Council IFCOSOC) and the United N:itions Childrens Fund NICIFI
          As*ut aud ‘ ith the I.. nited N;niuns E is ironrntnt Programme C LNEP) and th I.. titted Nations Department ol PuhI, Inlorritatnmn (DPI
          BP0003 86
          
        

          
          —2 --
          Zoroastrian minorities) and are thus placed outside the protection of the law.
          Those who wish to perpetrate attacks on Bah 'Is and their property may there-
          fore do so with almost complete ceftainty that they will go unpunished.
          Since the inception of the Bah 'I Faith in Iran in 1844, the Bah 1 s have been
          the most frequently persecuted group in that country. In the mid—nineteenth
          century, over 20,000 early believers were the victims of massacres, and the
          Iranian Bah 'I community has subsequently suffered continued persecution at the
          hands of successive governments. During the Pahiavi regime (1921—1979), when
          outbreaks of physical vioience against Bahá'Is were fairly sporadic, a large
          volume of discriminatory legislation was enacted which deprived the Bahi'Is,
          both individually and as a community, of many basic rights and freedoms.
          During and since the revolution, the Bahi'Is in Iran have been the repeated
          victims of violent attacks. Individuals have been beaten, terrorized, and
          savagely murdered. Properties have been confiscated, desecrated, and in sorne
          cases destroyed. The businesses of individual Bah 'fs have been confiscated
          and their bank accounts frozen.
          The enemies of the Bah f Faith have conducted a campaign of vilification
          against the Bahá'I community, designed to identify the Bah '1s as supporters
          of the ax-Shah, agents of SAVAK, opponents of Islam, spies for Israel, moral
          degenerates, and enemies of the Iranian government and people. The charges
          brought against the executed Bahá' s included some or all of these accusations.
          Such charges are totailywithout foundation. The Iranian Bah 'Is — — in common
          with their fellow believers the world over -— are obliged, as an article of
          their faith, to show loyalty and obedience to the government of the c'ountry in
          which they live, whatever its form or policies, and to abstain from partici-
          pation in politics or involvement in any subversive activity. They are com-
          mitted to the highest standards of morality and rectitude in their public and
          private lives. In addition, Bahâ'Is believe in the essential oneness of all
          the great religions, including Islam, consider these faiths as divine in ori-
          gin, and honor and revere their founders. These facts have repeatedly been
          presented to the Iranian authorities, together with evidence that the Iranian
          Bah 'Is have steadfastly upheld these fundamental principles of their Faith — —
          but all such representations, and all appeals for justice and fair treatment
          for the Bah TIs, have gone unheeded.
          Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
          17 February 1981