Baha’is to thank Govt

Press, 14 June 1984, Page 26

Baha’is to thank Govt

The New Zealand Baha’i community will express its gratitude to the New Zealand Government for supporting a United Nations resolution to investigate human rights in Iran. At a meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc), New Zealand voted in favour of endorsing a recommendation submitted to it by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Earlier, the commission had expressed its “deep concern at the continuing serious violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Iran and par-

ticularly at the evidence of summary and arbitrary executions, torture, detention without trial, religious intolerance and persecution, in particular of the Baha’is, and the lack of an independent judiciary and other safeguards for a fair trial.”

In view of the gravity of the situation in Iran, the commission had requested its chairman to appoint a special representative to investigate. The Ecosoc decision provided this approval. The appointment is expected soon of the special representative who will get

in touch with the Government in Iran, study the human rights there, and report back to the United Nations Human Rights Commission. New Zealand’s 48 Baha’i Spiritual Assemblies were extremely concerned about the campaign in Iran to eradicate the Baha’i community and to destroy all traces of the Baha’i faith, said a spokesman.

More than 170 Baha'is have been executed in Iran since 1979 and recently the persecution entered a new phase with the imprisonment of 700 Baha’is because of their religious beliefs.