A resolution condemning the Government of Iran's state-sponsored persecution of the Baha'i minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights.

III ★(Star Print) 118TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. RES. 74 Condemning the Government of Iran’s state-sponsored persecution of the Baha’i minority and its continued violation of the International Cov- enants on Human Rights. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 16, 2023 Mr. WYDEN (for himself, Mr. RUBIO, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. BOOZMAN, Mr. WHITEHOUSE, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, Mr. KELLY, Mr. HICKENLOOPER, Ms. ROSEN, Ms. HIRONO, Ms. SINEMA, Mr. CARDIN, Mrs. SHAHEEN, Mr. WARNOCK, Ms. HASSAN, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mr. KAINE, Mr. COONS, Mr. WELCH, Mr. BRAUN, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mrs. FISCHER, Ms. COLLINS, Ms. BALDWIN, Ms. WARREN, Mr. PADILLA, Mr. LANKFORD, Mrs. GILLIBRAND, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. OSSOFF, Mr. HOEVEN, Ms. BUTLER, Ms. CORTEZ MASTO, Mr. CRAPO, and Mr. REED) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations DECEMBER 5, 2024 Committee discharged; considered and agreed to with an amended preamble RESOLUTION Condemning the Government of Iran’s state-sponsored perse- cution of the Baha’i minority and its continued violation of the International Covenants on Human Rights. Whereas, in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022, Congress declared that it deplored the religious persecution by the Govern- ment of Iran of the Baha’i community and would hold VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 SRES 74 ATS1S the Government of Iran responsible for upholding the rights of all Iranian nationals, including members of the Baha’i faith; Whereas, since 1979, Iranian authorities have killed or exe- cuted more than 200 Baha’i leaders and more than 10,000 Baha’is have been dismissed from government and university jobs; Whereas June 18, 2023, marked the 40th anniversary of the execution of 10 Baha’i women by the Government of Iran, each witnessing the hanging of those hanged before her in a final failed attempt to induce abandonment of their faith after over 6 months of imprisonment and vio- lent abuse, with the youngest only 17 years old; Whereas, on December 19, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/C.3/78/L.41) calling on Iran to carry out wide-ranging reforms and expressing serious concerns for its escalating human rights abuses, including— (1) ‘‘severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief’’; (2) ‘‘restrictions on the establishment of places of worship, undue restrictions on burials carried out in ac- cordance with religious tenets, attacks against places of worship and burial’’; (3) ‘‘increased harassment, intimidation, persecu- tion, arbitrary arrest, and detention of, and incitement to hatred that leads to violence against, persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, in- cluding Christians (particularly converts from Islam), Gonabadi Dervishes, Jews, Sufi Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yarsanis, Zoroastrians, and in particular, Baha’is’’; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 SRES 74 ATS1S (4) ‘‘denial of and restrictions on access to edu- cation, including for members of the Baha’i faith’’; and (5) ‘‘particular’’ persecution of members of the Baha’i community ‘‘who have been subjected to a contin- ued increase in persecution, including attacks, harass- ment and targeting . . . on account of their faith and have been reportedly subjected to mass arrests and lengthy prison sentences, as well as the arrest of promi- nent members and increased confiscation and destruction of property’’; Whereas, in the 2024 Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued in May 2024, it is reported that in 2023— (1) the Government of Iran ‘‘conducted individual and mass arrests of Baha’is across Iran taking them to undisclosed locations and imposing excessively long prison sentences’’; (2) ‘‘security officials beat and brutalized Baha’is during raids and searches of private homes’’; (3) ‘‘security forces arrested scores of Baha’is in cit- ies including Hamadan, Mehrshahr, Yazd, Karaj, Alborz, and Tehran’’; (4) the ‘‘government has targeted Baha’i women in particular’’ and that ‘‘[a]pproximately two-thirds of Ira- nian Baha’i prisoners are women’’; (5) authorities ‘‘targeted Baha’i cemeteries in Arak, Alborz, and Golestan’’; and (6) local ‘‘municipalities seized and confiscated Baha’i land, restricted Baha’i access to burial grounds, and declared intentions to sell Baha’i-owned property ex- clusively to Muslims.’’; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 SRES 74 ATS1S Whereas the Iran section of the Department of State’s 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom issued in May 2023 provides, in part— (1) ‘‘[I]n July and August, security forces in cities across the country conducted multiple raids of Baha’i homes, confiscated property deemed ‘illegitimate wealth’, and arrested Baha’is in their homes or workplaces on un- substantiated charges including ‘causing intellectual and ideological insecurity in Muslim society.’ ’’; (2) ‘‘Authorities reportedly continued to deny mem- bers of unrecognized religious minority groups access to education and government employment unless they de- clared themselves as belonging to one of the country’s recognized religions on their application forms. UN ex- perts reported universities rejected more than 90 Baha’i students between January and August.’’; and (3) ‘‘Government officials and government-affiliated organizations continued to disseminate anti-Baha’i and antisemitic messages using traditional and social media.’’; Whereas, in response to a surge in persecution in June and July 2022, involving the subjection of over 100 Baha’is to arrests, arraignments, sentencing, and raids on their homes and businesses across Iran, including the sen- tencing in June of 26 individuals in the city of Shiraz to a combined total of 85 years in prison, the Department of State’s Office of International Religious Freedom issued a statement on August 2, 2022, indicating that ‘‘[a]mid a continued rise in arrests, sentences, and imprisonments, the U.S. urges Iran to halt its ongoing oppression of the Baha’i community and honor its inter- national obligations to respect the right of all Iranians to freedom of religion or belief’’; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 SRES 74 ATS1S Whereas, on November 21, 2022, Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi, 2 former members of the informal 7-person leadership group of the Baha’is of Iran, who each served 10-year sentences from 2008 to 2018, and have been de- tained since July 31, 2022, in Evin prison, were sen- tenced to 10 years in prison each after a summary trial lasting 1 hour; Whereas, on December 11, 2022, the Baha’i International Community organization stated that ‘‘Dr. Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel laureate and defence lawyer for Mahvash and Fariba during their first trial, said in 2008 that ‘not a shred of evidence’ was offered to prove the national secu- rity charges or other allegations. Nor was any new evi- dence forthcoming at this latest trial’’; Whereas, on January 12, 2024, the Baha’i International Community organization reported increasing incidents of persecution accompanied by intensified violence per- petrated against the Baha’i community by the Govern- ment of Iran, for example— (1) ‘‘since the beginning of October [2023] more than 200 incidents of persecution, including over 50 ar- rests and imprisonments, have occurred in various cities such as Shiraz, Yazd, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Karaj’’; (2) government agents have perpetrated ‘‘increas- ingly violent home raids, disproportionately affecting women and the elderly, and have even resulted in hos- pitalizations and traumatic separations of mothers from their children. Notably, over two-thirds of those arrested and detained have been women, predominantly in their twenties and thirties, highlighting the escalation of at- tacks against women in recent months.’’; and VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 SRES 74 ATS1S (3) government agents have instigated a ‘‘con- spicuous rise in hate speech, where Baha’is have been ac- cused of being behind the September 2022 protests, pro- moting permissiveness, being against Islam and Shiism, being spies for Israel and the West, and being part of a political movement that seeks to undermine the state’’; Whereas Iran is a member of the United Nations and a sig- natory to both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Polit- ical Rights, among other international human rights trea- ties, without reservation; Whereas section 105 of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (22 U.S.C. 8514) authorizes the President to impose sanctions on in- dividuals who are ‘‘responsible for or complicit in, or re- sponsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, the commission of serious human rights abuses against citizens of Iran or their family members on or after June 12, 2009’’; and Whereas the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (Public Law 112–158) amends and expands the authorities established under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–195) to sanction Iranian human rights abusers: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate— 1 (1) condemns the Government of Iran’s state- 2 sponsored persecution of the Baha’i minority in Iran 3 and the continued violation of the Universal Dec- 4 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 SRES 74 ATS1S laration of Human Rights and the International 1 Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; 2 (2) calls on the Government of Iran— 3 (A) to immediately release the imprisoned 4 or detained Baha’is and all other prisoners held 5 solely on account of their religion; 6 (B) to end its state-sponsored campaign of 7 hate propaganda against the Baha’is; and 8 (C) to reverse state-imposed policies deny- 9 ing Baha’is and members of other religious mi- 10 norities equal opportunities to higher education, 11 earning a livelihood, due process under the law, 12 and the free exercise of religious practices; 13 (3) calls on the President and the Secretary of 14 State, in cooperation with responsible nations, to im- 15 mediately condemn the Government of Iran’s contin- 16 ued violation of human rights, and demand the im- 17 mediate release of prisoners held solely on account 18 of their religion; and 19 (4) urges the President and the Secretary of 20 State to utilize available authorities to impose sanc- 21 tions on officials of the Government of Iran and 22 other individuals directly responsible for serious 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8 SRES 74 ATS1S human rights abuses, including abuses against the 1 Baha’i community of Iran. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:24 Dec 12, 2024 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR74.ATS SR74 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB