Thank you, Mr President.
Special Rapporteur - your report is clear - the human rights
situation in Iran remains appalling and is getting even worse.
Last year the Iranian authorities executed over 800 people. Women
are persecuted and their voices forcibly repressed. Civic space
is shrinking and human rights defenders are being targeted.
We are, in particular, concerned by the discrimination and
violations against persons belonging to minorities. Kurds and
Baluchis made up a highly disproportionate number of those put to
death in 2023. Baha’is, Christians and Sunni Muslims face daily
discrimination, whether accessing education, jobs, or places to
worship. Furthermore, Baha’i’s are arbitrary detained, forced
from their lands and denied burial rights.
Iran is also escalating its campaign of censorship and
suppression of media freedoms. We thank the Special Rapporteur
for raising the targeting of BBC News Persian, including the
death threats, criminal prosecution, harassment of family
members, and online attacks on women journalists. We would like
to ask the Special Rapporteur his view on recent reports of BBC
journalists being convicted in absentia for ‘propaganda against
the Islamic Republic’.
Mr President,
It is time to end these violations. It is time for
accountability. It is time for justice for the Iranian people.
