The persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran
24.4.2024
Question for written answer E-001255/2024
to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Rule 138
Fabio Massimo Castaldo (Renew), Olivier Chastel (Renew), Jan-Christoph Oetjen (Renew)
Human Rights Watch recently released a report on the authorities’ persecution of the Bahá’í community in Iran[1]. The report asserts that the systemic repression carried out by the regime for over 45 years amounts to the crime against humanity of persecution, which is legally definable under international criminal law.
The report reveals what can be described as a veritable obsession with Bahá’ís on the part of the Iranian Government. The report meticulously documents the discriminatory laws, policies and practices used to violate the fundamental human rights of Bahá’ís in the country. Human Rights Watch stated that Bahá’ís face abuses in nearly every aspect of life, from arbitrary arrests and imprisonment by government agencies, to confiscation and destruction of property, denial of access to education and employment, and even prohibition of a dignified burial.
Is there any EU strategy in place to provide concrete support to the communities that are the victims of this long-lasting persecution, and most notably to exert constant diplomatic pressure aimed at encouraging the Iranian authorities to abolish, or at least review, the confidential memorandum approved by the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council of Iran in 1991, upon which the entire system of state-sponsored persecution rests?
Submitted:24.4.2024
- [1] Human Rights Watch, ‘“The boot on my neck”: Iranian authoritites’ crime of persecution against Baha’is in Iran’, 1 April 2024, https://www.hrw.org/report/2024/04/01/boot-my-neck/iranian-authorities-crime-persecution-against-bahais-iran.