UN Human Rights Council 55: Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Iran

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.