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
