On December 5, the U.S. Senate passed by unanimous consent Senate Resolution 74, “Condemning the Government of Iran’s state-sponsored persecution of the Bahá’í minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights.”
Introduced by Senator Wyden [D-OR] on behalf of himself and a bipartisan group of 37 cosponsors, including Senator Mazie Hirono from Hawaii, a record high for Bahá’í resolutions since 1982, Senate Resolution 74 (S. Res. 74) provides a damning account of the systematic and increasingly brutal treatment of the Bahá’ís.
The Resolution calls on the President and Secretary of State to condemn the Government of Iran’s “continued violation of human rights and demand the immediate release of prisoners held solely on account of their religion” and urges the imposition of sanctions “on officials of the Government of Iran and other individuals directly responsible for serious human rights abuses, including abuses against the Bahá’í community of Iran.” It also condemns Iran for a gross violation of its treaty obligations as a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
S. Res. 74 highlights a range of human rights violations perpetrated against the Bahá’ís by the Iranian Regime since 1979 but focuses on recent events many occurring in 2023 and 2024.
Key highlights include violations of due process through:
• Violent raids on personal residences.
• Unlawful permanent confiscation of property during those raids without consent or compensation.
• Arbitrary arrests.
• Detention in undisclosed locations for indefinite periods of time.
• Physical violence against individuals, especially in their homes.
• State theft in the form of taking crucial tools needed for work, technological devices, books, and bail set to such a level as to intentionally impoverish families.
The Resolution also calls attention to the cruel official practices of excluding Bahá’í youth from university education, barring Bahá’ís from access to their cemeteries to bury their dead, and the disproportionate and deliberate pattern of targeting Bahá’í women for arrest, charge, and sentencing.
S. Res. 74 states that “government agents have perpetrated ‘increasingly violent home raids, affecting women and the elderly, and have even resulted in hospitalizations and traumatic separations of mothers from their children. Notably, over two-thirds of those arrested and detained have been women, predominantly in their twenties and thirties, highlighting the escalation of attacks against women in recent months.’”
In addition to the action in the U.S. Senate, the United Nations General Assembly has rebuked the Islamic Republic of Iran for its human rights violations, including against the Bahá’í community, saying in a new resolution that Bahá’ís and others faced “ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions” on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief. Eighty countries voted in favor of the resolution, with 27 against and 68 abstentions.
The vote marks an increase in General Assembly support for the annual resolution—which in 2023 received 78 votes in favor.
See the complete story here: https://news.bahai.org/story/1770/