Our very good friend and supporter, Lord Avebury, today raised an emergency question in the House of Lords. The question and Lord Avebury’s supplementary question was responded to by Lord Malloch-Brown, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

You can find the link to the Hansard record of the debate here:

Emergency Human Rights Council resolution?

You will note that Lord Avebury’s supplementary question was this:

My Lords, while I am grateful to the EU presidency for its statement, in view of the fact that Iran accounts for the largest number of urgent appeals by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and that the working group, the special rapporteur on freedom of religion and the independent expert on minorities have jointly and separately drawn attention to the serious concerns felt about the treatment of Baha’is over the past two years, does the Minister agree that the situation warrants an emergency resolution at the forthcoming eighth Session of the Human Rights Council, which is to be held in the first half of June this year?

Lord Malloch-Brown’s response agrees that the situation warrants an emergency resolution at the forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council:

My Lords, I agree that it warrants one; we will have to consider whether we can achieve it. It is possible to ask for a special Session of an emergency resolution at the Human Rights Council, but to date the way that we have had most success on Iran, including on the Baha’is issue, has been through the third committee of the UN General Assembly. We have used the Human Rights Council to raise issues of the treatment of the Baha’is, using the thematic special rapporteurs to which the noble Lord referred.

There are a number of other significant comments in this short debate, the text of which is well worth reading.

It’s always exciting when the Faith gets such support in parliament and we will be pursuing this further.

Iran Baha’i arrests - previous posts

Read some more of my posts on Iran:

Baha’is arrested in Iran - grave news
Baha’i leaders arrested in Iran - Baha’i World News Service story
Bahá’í arrests in Iran - Wendi’s excellent article
Baha’i arrests in Iran - more coverage
EU condemns arrests of Baha’is in Iran

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, UN, Human Rights Council, House of Lords, Lord Avebury, Lord Malloch-Brown, Foreign Office

The European Union has issued a strong statement (through the EU’s Slovenian Presidency) condemning the action of the Iranian government in arresting six members of the Iranian Bahá’í coordinating committee and calling for their release:

21.05.2008

Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on Baha’i arrests

The European Union is deeply concerned by reports that Ministry of Intelligence officers arrested six members of the Baha’i faith in Tehran on 14 May, who are currently being held in Evin prison.

The EU reiterates its serious concern about the continuing systematic discrimination and harassment of the Iranian Baha’is on the grounds of their religion.

The EU calls on the Islamic Republic of Iran to uphold fully the right to adopt and practise a religion of choice, to end the persecution of the Baha’i community, and to release the detained individuals.

The Candidate Countries, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Montenegro and Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

I am very grateful to the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office for the part it played in proposing this to EU partners.

Hat tip: Neysan and Tomaz

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, human rights, religious freedom, EU, European Union, Slovenia, EU Presidency