NATIONS UNIES S UNITED NATIONS
SERViCE DE L'JNFORMATION - OFFICEDES NATIONS UNJES A GENEVE
INFcIRMA TION SER VICE - UNITED NA TIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA
Press Release HR/1033
9 March 1931
CO1'fl SSION ON HUTIAIT RIGHTS BEGINS CONSIDERATION QF HTJTIA .N RIGHTS
VIOLATION IN A1 PART OF THE 1ORLD
Press Release HR/1033
Page 4
YvonBEAULNE (Canada) observed that massive and systematic violations of
human rights were persistently committed in all parts of the world and.that.some
governments “1 ew not, could not or simply did not wish to comply with the
existing resolutions of the Commission”, He referred to the situation in
Afghanistan and Kampuchea where eop1e were denied the right to self—determination
because of foreign occupation.
He also referred to “the tragic events” in Guatemala and regret-ted that this
government refused to receive, as p 'omised, the representative of the Inter—
American Commission of Human Rights 0 As -to El Salvador, the role of the
Commission was not to encourage the peoples of El Salvador to kill each other but
to lay down arms. As far as Bolivia was co cernecl, his delegation hoped that
the authorities would allow the Commission -to consider the human rights situation
prevailing in the country.
Canada, he stated, would propose the eleboration of an international
declaration cc nfirming -the responsibility of individual and groups as well as of
governments in insuring -the protection ai ci promotion of human rights and Thnda
mental freedoms.
He called on the Comndssion to consider -the allegations of discrimination
made by the Baha'i Community which, he thought, were well founded and could not
be simply discarded by the representative of Iran.
Paying tribu-te to anonymous defenders of human rights in eastern Europe,
Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the representative of. Canada. singled out
the case of Andrei Sakharov.
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Press Release HR/1033
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O.L.]1AVIS (Australia) said evidence from any country in the world of the
systenatio suppression of the right of individuals to defend human rights was of
concern to the Australian Government. In certain countries, the suppression of
freedom of speech and of assembly had Given rise to what have become 1 own as
dissident movements. “An aôt of dissent from the prevailing state ideolo r is
treated as a- crime. In certain circumstances those with cli esenting views are
committed to psychiatric hospitals, orto some form of political . “. -.
“This Commission will also be obliged to take up other situations which
involve reports of the breakdown of law, order and public morality of such magni-
tude that the Commission cannot but respond”.
A.no-table example of the recent use of the public procedures of the
Commission he said, had been the decison of ECOSOC to a thorize a public
investigation of the situation in a-tcri . Ct inoa under the dictator Macias.
The consequent study by Professor Fernando Vollo Jimeriez stood today as an
example of the range of the Commission's possibilities and his second report, whici
was before -the Commission demonstrated more clearly than any words which the
essential value of the Commission's work in this kind of' circumstance e ressecl.
Mr. Davis deplored the violations of human rights in Guatemala, the events
in El Salvador and. -the hea'r,ry losses of life which were occurring there.
One of the more neglected problems on which the Commission should act. was,
he said, that connected with'flagrant violations of the right of people to hold
a religious belief. One of the most distressing aspects of these violations was
the persecution of religious minorities in. Iran. He referred particularly to the
persecution in -that country of members of the Baha'i faith who were not only-
denied the rights of a recognised religious minority under the constitution but
were systematicafly harassed.
Press Release Hfl/1033
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Gerald I lGIU ' . (Observer frcm Baha'i International Community) drew the
a -t-ten-tion of the Commission -to the persecution of a religious minority in Iran.
He said the 300,000 member Baha'i Community was the largest religious minority
in that country and yet was not recognized under the Constitution. This non—
recognition had led to a serious violation of human rights and fundamental
freedoms, in disregard of -the Covenant on Civil and Political Righ-to, a human
rights instrument sig-ied and ratified by Iran.
The omission of' the Baha'i Community of' Iran from the religious minorities
mentioned in the present Iranian Constitution had made the situation of' the Baha'i
Minority very precarious. The Christian, Je ish and Zoroastrian minorities were
afforded protection of -their human rights under the laws of the Islamic Republic
of Iran. But the deliberate omission of the Baha'i had left the way open to
intensified denunciations, summary arrests and trials, murders, and destruction
of property and holy places, with almost complete assurance of impunity for the
perpetrators.
