Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Baha'i community in Iran is subject to a widespread and systematic campaign of persecution;

(b) in 2012 and 2015, the House condemned the persecution and treatment of Baha'is in Iran;

(c) the discriminatory and unjust persecution continues, despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promising justice and equal opportunity for all Iranians;

(d) Australia was a co-sponsor of the December 2017 resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations which expressed 'serious concern about ongoing severe limitations and restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief in Iran'; and

(e) persecution of Baha'is has recently spread to Yemen where a death sentence was passed against Mr Hamed bin Haydara in January 2018 due to his religion; and

(2) calls for:

(a) the immediate release of all Baha'is currently imprisoned in Iran for their religion, including the remaining Baha'i leaders imprisoned since 2008;

(b) the Iranian Government to repeal all discriminatory legislation and practices, including the 1991 Baha'i Question memorandum of the Supreme Revolutionary Cultural Council;

(c) respect for the right of freedom of religion and belief for all and an end to the persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran; and

(d) the repeal of the death sentence against Mr bin Haydara and the immediate release of all Baha'is currently imprisoned in Yemen for their religion.

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