UN– ECOSOC — Comission on Human Rights– 37th Session– Provisional Agenda– Note by the Secretary-General

          
          UNITED NATIONS
          ECONOMIC
          AND
          SOCIAL COUNCIL
          - L
          Distr.
          GENERAL
          E/aN. 4/SR. 1604
          20 February 1981
          ENGLISH
          Original: FB QH:
          COIv ISS ION ON HUNAN RIGHTS
          Thirty—seventh session
          SU] RY RECORD OF THE 1604TH MEETING
          Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva,
          on Tuesday, 17 February 1981, at 4.30 p.m.
          Chairman :
          (Brazil)
          Question of the. human. rights of all persons subjected to any form of detention
          or imprisonment, in particular:
          (b) Question of missing and disappeared persons.
          Mr. CALERO RODRIGUES
          CONTENTS
          BP000378
          
        

          
          COMPOS
          FACSIMILE.,
          E/CN. 4/Sn. 16b4
          page 3
          25. lIr. K1 IGHT.(Baiia'i International Community) said that he wished to report on
          the disappea±'ance of 14 prominent members of the Baha'i Com nity in Iran. Three
          of them had been kidnapped betweer Nay 1979 and January 1980 and the other 11,
          including all 9 members of the N .tiona1 Administrative Council of the Baha'is of
          Iran, had been ar ested by revolutionary guards in August 1980. The families of the
          persons whO aad'disa péared had made every effort to.locate their relatives, but
          their appeal ha L gori unheeded. He therefore took the opportunity afforded by the
          discussion to request the Iranian G overnment once again to throw some light on. the
          fate of those disappeared persons. The Working Group had already been provided with
          details of the kidnappings, but he nonetheless wished to give the Conmiios ion a brief
          summary of the situation..
          26. Since tile revolution., prominent Baha' is in. many parts of Iran had. been arrested
          and, in. some cases,. executed as part of a continuing and systematic campaign to
          demoralize, ara1y e and ultimately eradicate the Iranian. Baha 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 Chrisitian, Jewish and Zoroastrian minorities, did not recognize them, so
          that they were outs do 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 inc ption of the Baha'i faith in Iran in 1844, the Baha'is had been
          frequently p rsecuted in. that country. During the Palilavi regime (1921—1979),
          disc±'iminatory legislation had been enacted which had. deprived the Bafla' is of many
          basic rights ird freedoms. Since the revolution the persecutions had been. resume i
          with e/•en more intensity. The enemies of the Baha'i faith were conducting a campaign
          of vilification against the Baha'is, who were accused of' supporting the former Shah,
          of being agents of Savak, opponents of Islam, spies for Israel, moral degenerates,
          and enemies of the Iranian Government and people, all of which accusations were
          totally unfounded. The Iranian Baha' is, in common with Baha' is the world over, ‘tIers
          obliged. to show loyalty and obedience to the Government of the country in.. which they
          lived., and to refrain, from involvement in politics or any subversive activity.
          They were comitittecl 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 Othey regarded as divine in. origin and whose founders they honoured and
          revered. Those facts had repeatedly been presented to the Iranian authorities,
          together with 1 evidence that the Iranian Baha'is had steadfastly upheld those
          fundamental principles of their faith, but all such representations and appeals for
          justice and fair tre itmen.t had gone unheeded.
          E/CN 4/SR. 1604
          page 9
          29. Hr. Dk13Th. (Observer for Iran) said that the statement by the Observer for the
          Baha'i International Community called for some comments. In. the first place, the
          case of the Ba1 ati minority ‘ tras 1Drovicle for under the Iranian Constitution, ‘ tiiUCll
          recognized the rights of minorities to i ractise their religious rites in complete
          freedom. The Baha'i were part of the Iranian people: consequently, they had the
          same ri .1its and. wore subject to the same duties and obligations as the rest of the
          population. Secondly, the allerrations of enforced disappearances and kithiappings
          were totally unfounded, and he had been instructed to reject them energetically.
          Thirdly, there kran absolutely rio question of' any kidnappings in Iran. If certain
          eop1e had been detained, it was in accordance with the law in force and beca't.ise
          they had committed acts of which they had been found guilty by duly constituted
          courts which h d tried. them in a spirit of justice, humanism nd Islamic mercy.