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.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 525 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 525

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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            December 3, 2025

Mr. Wyden (for himself, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. 
 Kaine, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Whitehouse, Mrs. Capito, 
  Mr. Merkley, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Coons, Mr. 
Welch, Ms. Warren, Ms. Hassan, Mrs. Fischer, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Murphy, and 
Mrs. Shaheen) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               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.

Whereas, in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2006, 
        2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024, 
        Congress declared that it deplored the religious persecution by the 
        Government of Iran of the Baha'i community and would hold 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 executed more than 200 
        Baha'i leaders and more than 10,000 Baha'is have been dismissed from 
        government and university jobs;
Whereas June 18, 2025, marked the 42nd 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 violent abuse, with 
        the youngest only 17 years old;
Whereas, on December 17, 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a 
        resolution (A/RES/79/183) criticizing Iran for human rights abuses and 
        calling on Iran to carry out wide-ranging reforms, including ending--

    (1) ``in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination on the basis 
of thought, conscience, religion, or belief, including restrictions 
contained in article 499 bis and article 500 bis of the Islamic Penal 
Code'';

    (2) ``escalated discrimination and violence, as well as economic 
restrictions, such as the closure, destruction or confiscation of 
businesses, land and properties, the cancellation of licenses and the 
denial of employment in certain public and private sectors, including 
government or military positions and elected office, the denial of and 
restrictions on access to education, including for members of the Baha'i 
and other religious minorities, and other human rights violations against 
persons belonging to recognized and unrecognized religious minorities'';

    (3) ``ongoing severe limitations and increasing restrictions on the 
right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, restrictions 
on the establishment of places of worship, undue restrictions on burials 
carried out in accordance with religious tenets''; and

    (4) ``attacks against places of worship and burial and other human 
rights violations, but not limited to the increased harassment, 
intimidation, persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention of, and 
incitement to hatred that leads to violence against, persons belonging to 
recognized and unrecognized religious minorities, including . . . in 
particular, Baha'is'';

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] has targeted Baha'i women in particular, 
including 10 arrested in Isfahan in October. Approximately two-thirds of 
Iranian Baha'i prisoners are women, including Mahvash Sabet and Fariba 
Kamalabadi, members of Iran's former Baha'i leadership (Yaran-e-Iran). Both 
are serving a decade in prison after having previously served an identical 
sentence in the early 2010s.''; and

    (2) ``Authorities also targeted Baha'i cemeteries in Arak, Alborz, and 
Golestan. Local municipalities seized and confiscated Baha'i land, 
restricted Baha'i access to burial grounds, and declared intentions to sell 
Baha'i-owned property exclusively to Muslims.'';

Whereas, in response to a surge in persecution of Baha'i women by the Government 
        of Iran between 2022 and 2024, on July 31, 2024, 18 United Nations 
        Special Rapporteurs and United Nations Working Group experts released a 
        joint letter of allegations concerning the increase ``in the systematic 
        targeting of Baha'i women, including through arrests, summoning for 
        interrogation, enforced disappearance, raids on their homes and 
        confiscation of their personal belongings'' and reported that--

    (1) ``Since early March 2024 alone, 72 of 93 Baha'is summoned to court 
or prison, more than three-quarters, have been women.''; and

    (2) ``Baha'i women face intersectional persecution: as women and as 
members of the Baha'i religious minority. The escalation comes as Baha'i 
women continue to be confronted with ongoing incidents of persecution faced 
by all Baha'is, including denial of higher education and economic and 
cultural restrictions, which spans their entire lives, impacting them 
intellectually, socially and economically as they are banned from 
university and public employment only for their faith.'';

Whereas the Iran section of the Department of State's 2023 Report on 
        International Religious Freedom issued in May 2024 provides, in part--

    (1) ``Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said the majority of 
human rights violations against religious minorities involved Baha'is (85 
percent).'';

    (2) ``The NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) reported more than 
1,000 Baha'is were either imprisoned, in custody, under arrest, or waiting 
for a hearing or to be summoned by a court.''; and

    (3) ``A Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology order requires 
universities to exclude Baha'is from access to higher education, or to 
expel them if their religious affiliation becomes known.'';

Whereas, on April 1, 2024, Human Rights Watch issued a report titled, ```The 
        Boot on My Neck': Iranian Authorities' Crime of Persecution Against 
        Baha'is in Iran'', which detailed that--

    (1) ``For the past four decades, the authorities' serial violations of 
Baha'is' rights have continued, directed by the state's most senior 
officials and the Islamic Republic's ideology, which holds extreme animus 
against adherents of the Baha'i faith. While the intensity of violations 
against Baha'is has varied over time, the authorities' persecution of 
people who are members of this faith community has remained constant, 
impacting virtually every aspect of Baha'is' private and public lives.'';

    (2) ``The Islamic Republic's repression of Baha'is, particularly after 
1979, is enshrined in Iranian law and is official government policy.''; and

    (3) ``Human Rights Watch believes that the cumulative impact of 
authorities' decades-long systematic repression is an intentional and 
severe deprivation of Baha'is' fundamental rights and amounts to the crime 
against humanity of persecution.'';

Whereas, on July 17, 2024, Mr. Javaid Rehman, the Special Rapporteur on the 
        situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran issued a 
        special report titled, ``Atrocity Crimes and grave violations of human 
        rights committed by the Islamic Republic of Iran (1981-1982 and 1988)'', 
        which concluded, ``Having considered the various submissions and the 
        available documentation and having examined the treatment meted out to 
        the Baha'i community in the early years of the Revolution, the Special 
        Rapporteur reports that Iranian authorities--with destructive, arguably 
        genocidal intent--engaged in killing or colluded in the killings of 
        members of the Baha'i community; Baha'is were physically and mentally 
        tortured simply because of their faith and members of the community 
        suffered from `serious bodily or mental harm.' They also faced 
        confiscation of their properties, expulsion from employment and denial 
        of education rights.'';
Whereas Iran is a member of the United Nations and a signatory to both the 
        Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on 
        Civil and Political Rights, among other international human rights 
        treaties, 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 individuals who are ``responsible for or complicit 
        in, or responsible 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) condemns the Government of Iran's state-sponsored 
        persecution of the Baha'i minority in Iran and the continued 
        violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 
        International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
            (2) calls on the Government of Iran--
                    (A) to immediately release the imprisoned or 
                detained Baha'is and all other prisoners held solely on 
                account of their religion;
                    (B) to end its state-sponsored campaign of hate 
                propaganda against the Baha'is; and
                    (C) to reverse state-imposed policies denying 
                Baha'is and members of other religious minorities equal 
                opportunities to higher education, earning a 
                livelihood, due process under the law, and the free 
                exercise of religious practices;
            (3) calls on the President and the Secretary of State, in 
        cooperation with responsible nations, to immediately condemn 
        the Government of Iran's continued violation of human rights 
        and demand the immediate release of prisoners held solely on 
        account of their religion; and
            (4) urges the President and the Secretary of State to 
        utilize available authorities to impose sanctions on officials 
        of the Government of Iran and other individuals directly 
        responsible for serious human rights abuses, including abuses 
        against the Baha'i community of Iran.
                                 <all>