NEW YORK — A resolution confirmed by the United Nations General Assembly, first adopted by the Third Committee in November, condemns the “cumulative” impact of the Iranian government’s persecution of the Bahá’í community over the past 46 years.
The resolution also rebukes the Islamic Republic for its broader human rights record.
Confirmed with 78 votes, the General Assembly highlights “a continued increase in and the cumulative impacts of long-standing persecution” against a wide range of recognized and unrecognized religious communities, “in particular, Bahá’ís,” as well as Christians, Gonabadi Dervishes, Jews, Sufi and Sunni Muslims, Yarsanis and Zoroastrians.
Each of these faith communities faces intensifying attacks, harassment, and targeting, the resolution says, with women and girls at “particular risk.”
“International condemnation of the Iranian government’s persecution of the Bahá’í community is widespread and indisputable,” said Bani Dugal, Principal Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations. “The Iranian government must heed these concerns—which have been repeated for so many decades—by respecting the rights of Bahá’ís and all religious and ethnic minorities.”
The Third Committee vote in November was followed by an urgency resolution at the European Parliament, on 28 November, which “strongly” criticized Iran’s government for its human rights attacks on Bahá’ís and urged European officials to raise the issue with their Iranian counterparts.
And earlier this month the Bahá’í International Community and Human Rights Watch published an extraordinary joint statement about Iran’s “weaponized” system of justice and the role played by judges and other judiciary officials in targeting, discriminating against, threatening, jailing and persecuting innocent Bahá’í citizens.
“The United Nations General Assembly has taken the powerful step of highlighting the cumulative impact of almost 50 years of persecution of the Bahá’ís,” Ms. Dugal said. “The human costs of the Islamic Republic’s repressive policies are plain for all to see. Arbitrary detentions, unjust and long prison sentences, the denial of educations and livelihoods, state hate speech against Bahá’ís, and other systematic measures are brutal human rights violations designed to eradicate the Bahá’í community as a viable entity—and they damage the rest of society. All these violations must end.”
Intensified assaults on Iran’s Bahá’í community
Recent events in Iran have reinforced the General Assembly’s concerns. In October, ten Bahá’í women in Isfahan were sentenced to a combined 90 years in prison for organizing educational and cultural activities. Independent UN experts also issued a late 2024 joint statement denouncing ongoing home raids, travel bans, and prolonged sentences imposed on Bahá’í women, describing these actions as a continuous pattern of targeted discrimination.
Reports by human rights organizations—including the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center and Human Rights Watch—have documented the breadth of violations against the Bahá’í community by the Iranian government. Human Rights Watch characterized the 45‑year campaign against Bahá’ís as amounting to the “crime against humanity of persecution.”
