UN — Economic and Social Council — Commission on Human Rights — 37th Session — Summary Record of the 1604th Meeting

          
          —
          UNITED NATIONS
          ECONOMIC
          AND
          SOCIAL COUNCIL
          • Djstr.
          ENEBAL
          • E/CN.4/SR. 1604
          20 February 1981
          GLISH
          Original: FREN 1.
          C01 MISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
          Thirty—seventh session
          SiTh ARY RECORD OF TEE 1604TH 1 ETfl G
          Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
          on Tuesday, 17 February 1981, at 4.30 p.m.
          Chairman :
          Mr. CALEHO RODRIGOES
          CONTENTS
          Question of the.h,1Tn n rights of all persons subj ectod. to any form of detention
          or imprisonment, in particular:
          (b) Question of missing and disappeared persons.
          This record i subject to correction.
          Participants wishing' to t a .ke corrections should submit them in iting to the
          Official Records E itin Section, room .61 , •PalaLs dos Nations, Geneva, within
          one weei of receavuig the rocora. in tncirwork.Llg iWg F ge.
          Corrections to the recor is of the me tings of the Commission at this session
          will be consolithitei in a single corrigehclum to be issued • ho -t1y alter the end of
          the session -
          • •• BP000385
          (Brazil)
          
        

          
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          25. lIr. }3 IC-HT (Baha 'i Thtsrnational Community) said that he wished to report on
          the disappearance ol' 14 .p 'c.rninent members of the Baha'i Community in Iran. Three
          of them had been kidnarped between Ilay 1979 and January 1920 and the other 11,
          including all 9 embcrs of the N tionai Administrative Council of the Baha'is of
          Iran, had ,been arrested by revclut.ionary guards in August 1930. The families of the
          persons who had disanpearod had made every effort to locate their relatives, but
          their appeals had ‘ond unJ ceded. He therefore took the opportunity afforded by the
          discussion to reeuest the Iranian Government once a , ain to thrc;r some light on the
          fate ci' those disarpeared persons. The /1orkin ' Group had already been provided with
          details of the 1:idnappings, but henonetbeless ri.shed to give the Commission a brief
          summary of the situation.
          26. Since the revolution, prominent Palia 'is in many parts of Iran had been arrested
          and, in some cases, executed as part of a continuing and systematic campaign to
          demoralize, paraly:e and ultimately eradicate the Iranian Baha t i Community. Although
          Iran's 300,000 Baha'is were indigenous Iranians and constituted the largest
          religious minority in the country, the new Constitution, which recognized the
          smaller Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorIties, did not reco nize them, so
          that they were outside the.protection of the law. Those who wished to perpetrate
          attacks on Baha'is and their property could therefore do so with virtual impunity.
          Since the inception of the Baha'! faith in Iran in 1844, the Baha'is had been
          freciiently persecuted in that country. During the Pahiavi regime (1921—1979),
          discrirninctory le is1ation had been enacted which had. deprived the Baha'is of many
          basic rights and freedoms. Since the revolution the persecutions had been resumed
          with e en more intensity. The enemies oI' the Ba.ha'i faith were conducting a campaign
          of vilification against the Baha'i , who were accused of supporting the former Shah,
          of being agents of Savak, opponents of Islam, spies for Isra 1, moral degenerates,
          and enemies of the Iranian Government and people, all of which accusations were
          totally unfounded. The Iranian Daha'is,, in common with Baha'is the world over, were
          obliged to Show loyalty and obedience to the Government of the country in which they
          lived, and to refrain fror involvement in politics or any subversive activity.
          They were committed to the highest standards of morality and rectitude in their
          public and private lives. In addition, they believed that the essential spiritual
          unity of all mankind was expre sed through all the great religions — including
          Islam — which they regarded as divine in origin and whose founders they honoured and
          revered. Those facts had reneatedly been presented to the Iranian authorities,
          together with evidence that the Iranian Baha'is had steadfastly upheld those
          fundamental princirles. of their faith, but all such rep± 'esentatibns and. appeals for
          Justlce and faia' treatment had gone unheeded.