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Not a day goes by without more arrests of human rights defenders or women's activists,
arbitrary detention and unfair trials for journalists or trade unionists,
the torture of student activists, the execution of a member of ethnic minorities and other
gross violations in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Baha'is have faced each and every one of these abuses and others over the past thirty years.
In government sponsored media
and from Iran's pulpits the history and teachings of the Baha'i faith are blatantly falsified
and misrepresented
to incite hatred against them.
Their homes are illegally searched, their properties confiscated, their sentenced
to jail on manufactured charges.
Their lawyers are scorned when they point out that it is not against the law to be a Baha'i.
Even their acts of service to others are repressed by the government and its state security system.
The persecution extends from the cradle to the grave; in classrooms Baha'i children are
villified, can be expelled if they correct this misinformation, and have no access to programs for the gifted
or for athletes.
Youth are excluded from universities, adults are banned from all government jobs and from
many private sector businesses,
and even in trades supposedly open to them licenses are withheld, shops sealed, employers and
landlords coerced into firing or refusing to lease space to them.
Baha'is are threatened for associating with Muslim friends and neighbors,
Muslims are warned against befriending Baha'is,
campaigns of violent intimidation are launched to pressure them to flee from localities
throughout the country,
their cemeteries are bulldozed, and their graves desecrated.
For all these abuses we have clear and ample evidence.
When protestations are made against these egregious acts
government officials simply assert that Iran's Baha'is have their full citizenship rights.
For how long will such lies and hypocrisy go unchallenged?
That is why it is high time for the Council to appoint a special repporteur that will document
all the violations, then it will be clear what needs to be done if Iran truly intends to
stand by its lofty claims regarding the fundamental importance of human rights. Thank you. Mr.
President.