Amnesty International launched an urgent appeal today, asking its national chapters and concerned individuals to write to three Iranian officials regarding the "intensified assault" on the Baha'i community in Iran.
"Iran’s persecuted Baha’i minority are suffering escalated attacks on their human rights," Amnesty said. "Since 31 July 2022, the authorities have raided dozens of Baha’i houses, detained at least 30 people, and subjected many more to interrogations, electronic ankle bracelets and threats of imprisonment in relation to their Baha’i faith. They have also ramped up confiscation and demolition of Baha’i properties."
And a group of United Nations experts, led by three special rapporteurs, Javaid Rahman on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nazila Ghanea on the freedom of religion or belief, and Fernand de Varennes on minority issues, said in a joint statement yesterday that the persecution and harassment of religious minorities, and the use of religion to deny fundamental human rights, must cease in Iran.
“We are deeply concerned at the increasing arbitrary arrests, and on occasions, enforced disappearances of members of the Baha’i faith and the destruction or confiscation of their properties, in what bears all the signs of a policy of systematic persecution,” the experts said, adding that the current situation in Iran was part of a broader policy against religious minorities in the country, and that the Baha’i community is among Iran' most severely persecuted religious minorities.
The latest interventions follow a three-week-long crackdown on the Baha'i community in Iran, widespread support from Iranians and international actors, and reports that now almost 200 individuals have been targeted by recent weeks.
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