Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1)

notes the statement made on 20 March 2006 by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief expressing concern about the treatment of followers of the Baha’i faith in Iran;

(2)

expresses its grave concern that instructions have been issued to collect information and monitor activities of members of the Baha’i faith in Iran;

(3)

regards such action as an unacceptable interference with the rights of members of religious minorities;

(4)

fears that such monitoring could be used as the basis for persecution and discrimination against members of the Baha’i faith; and

(5)

urges the Government to pursue these concerns with our Embassy and with representatives of the Iranian Government.

I submit the motion that appears before us for debate following my meeting with representatives of the Baha’i community in Wollongong, who came along and expressed at that meeting their fears and concerns for the safety of fellow Baha’i followers living in Iran. The motion it places special emphasis on the report by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief issued in March this year, which expressed concern about the treatment of followers of the Baha’i faith in Iran. It expresses grave concern that instructions have been issued to collect information and monitor the activities of members of the Baha’i faith in Iran. It regards such action as an unacceptable interference in the rights of members of religious minorities and fears that such monitoring could be used as the basis for persecution and discrimination against members of the Baha’i faith.

Following that meeting, I thought it was important that the issue receive the due attention of the Australian parliament. It is in that regard that I submit the motion on behalf of all followers of the Baha’i faith. There are 13,000 living in Australia, many of whom have ongoing relationships and relatives still in Iran, and they are particularly concerned about their plight. In March this year, as I indicated in my motion, the UN special rapporteur revealed a confidential letter which conveyed high-level instructions from senior Iranian officials at the government level to identify persons who adhere to the Baha’i faith and to monitor their activities. The UN special rapporteur expressed concern that the information so gained would be used as a basis for increased persecution and described the potential monitoring of people as ‘an impermissible and unacceptable interference with the rights of members of religious minorities’.

The latest reports come in the wake of mounting attacks on the Baha’i followers published in government sanctioned press, radio and TV broadcasts in Iran. The delegation pointed out to me that these latest developments are part of an ongoing systematic program of persecution against Iran’s 300,000 Baha’i community, which is in fact the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority. I was advised that the current campaign of persecution began in 1979 with the coming to power of the Islamic government and that, in the late seventies and early eighties, virtually the entire leadership of the Iranian Baha’i community either was arrested and executed or disappeared. Thousands of Baha’i followers were then fired from their jobs, deprived of pensions and excluded from education. All manner of rights to religious freedom, worship and assembly were abrogated.

Interestingly enough at the time, international condemnation of such acts of oppression, including through resolutions of the United Nations, saw changes and improvements in the late 1990s which offered hope to members of the Baha’i community. The government, it appeared, from that time onwards did in fact refrain from the most egregious human rights violations, even though religious intolerance remained. I give as one example the fact that, for more than 25 years, members of the Baha’i community in Iran have been refused entry to university and colleges except in the case where they deny allegiance to their faith, and very few are prepared to do that. Such actions, in the view of all here, would appear inconsistent with long-held human rights and religious freedom commitments made by governments at the international level.

As recently as 19 May we saw 55 Baha’i followers arrested in the city of Shiraz. They were teaching classes to underprivileged children as part of a UNICEF community service activity. So the acts of persecution continue. This motion, I know, is above party politics, and the member for Gilmore has asked that I add her name to the comments made today. I ask the government to act urgently on the motion before us. (Time expired)

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