doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

I missed out on posting something on the United Nations Human Rights Day (Dec. 10th), but figured I’d give at least a peep to show that a) I’m not dead and b) I care about human rights issues. I have at least one other human rights post in draft, but it’s not done yet :P

I’ve been listening to some talks by Member of the Universal House of Justice Paul Lample lately, in which he speaks about the degeneration of language—and how, instead of representing or describing reality, language has come to be used to manipulate reality. He used the term “human rights” as an example. For example (to paraphrase), one nation (Nation A) may speak out in a global forum, decrying the violation of human rights in a certain other nation, and demanding redress or international condemnation. Said other nation (Nation B) could very well snap back and, instead of addressing the allegations leveled against it, decry the human rights abuses occurring in the accusing nation—since there are generally some form of human rights abuses occurring in every nation on earth at any given time—and demand that international condemnation be focused on the accuser rather than the accused. Remind you of anyone?

Human rights are not subjective; they’re very clearly and specifically laid out in such documents as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The problem in the above case would seem to be that, since there are human rights violations occurring at some level in all parts of the world at any given time, Nation B may feel entitled to reframe Nation A’s allegations of Nation B’s human rights abuses as hypocritical and unjust. In debating terms, this is known as ad hominem tu quoque, or the “you too” fallacy—changing the subject of debate by accusing one’s opponent of hypocrisy, thereby ignoring the original question.

Human rights is a question of justice, and goodness knows there’s not much of that to go around nowadays—although I feel we can safely say that some places have a little more to go around than others. Let’s just say that a nation whose government goes around today bulldozing cemeteries and systematically targeting the members of particular sections of its population for arbitrary arrest, detainment, property seizure, unwarranted expulsion from employment and from educational institutions, denial of pensions, harrassment and execution, isn’t a place you would go to find shining examples of the respect of human rights. and it’s always informative—and sobering—to read up on what human rights groups worldwide have to say about such places. If only we could put ad hominems aside for a day or two and face reality…

After a “nail-bitingly tense” vote on a no-action motion (NAM) tabled by Iran—which failed by 1 vote—the UN’s Third Committee finally approved a resolution condemning the human rights situation in Iran. Thanks to Barney for the heads up and for some insightful commentary on the issue.

NEW YORK—A committee of the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution today expressing “deep concern” about “ongoing systematic violations of human rights” in Iran.

Put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 41 other countries, the resolution took note of repression and persecution aimed by the Iranian government at groups ranging from women and women’s rights defenders to the news media and labor groups, as well as various ethnic and religious minorities, including Iranian Baha’is.

The resolution passed the General Assembly’s Third Committee by a vote of 72 to 50 with 55 abstentions on 20 November 2007. The vote essentially assures passage of the resolution in a final vote by the entire Assembly scheduled for December.

Its passage followed a call by Iran for “no action” on the motion, a vote that itself failed by 78 to 79, with 24 abstentions. That vote, also taken today, was seen as an important test of the General Assembly’s will to examine human rights issues in specific countries when warranted.

“We are pleased that the General Assembly did not shy away from its responsibility to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms, as identified in the U.N. Charter,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations.

Read the whole story.

On October 24th, 1945, the Charter of the United Nations entered into effect after being signed in San Francisco during the summer of 1945, creating the international organization we know today. The Baha’i International Community has been accredited as an international nongovernmental organization at the UN since 1948, and was granted special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council in 1970. Even now, in this time of reform within the UN, the BIC continues to make positive contributions—perhaps most notable of late was its statement, The Search for Values in an Age of Transition (PDF), on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations in 2005.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to America was newsworthy enough to make the front page of local, national and international news everywhere. You may have heard about his remarks to the American National Press Corps—in which he completely ignored a question posed to him about Iran’s Baha’is— or his talk at Columbia University and “public skewering” by Columbia president Lee Bollinger. Then, in a galling display of duplicity, Ahmadinejad delivered the following non-answer to a direct question about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’is at a United Nations press conference on September 25:

I doubt Ahmadinejad would ever read this blog, but just for the record:

1. The name of the religion mentioned is the Baha’i Faith.
2. The name of its divine prophet is Baha’u’llah.
3. He first revealed His mission to mankind in 1863.
4. You’re welcome.

Also blogged at Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Barnabas Quotidianus.

Egypt, a country with a long and glorious history dating back to the beginnings of civilization, has been in a very poor state of late, especially with respect to the treatment of its own citizens. Remember last December, when the Egyptian Supreme Court denied Egyptian Baha’is their fundamental citizenship rights by refusing to allow them official ID cards with the mandatory “Religion” field correctly filled out? Well, things just went downhill from there. Hard-hitting Baha’i blog Baha’i Faith in Egypt reports on an Egyptian newspaper interview with Dr. Basma Moussa, an Egyptian Baha’i, who, among other things, discussed the fact that Egyptian Baha’is must pay taxes like any other Egyptian citizen—but are nevertheless deprived of the civil rights granted to other tax-paying citizens. From the blog post:

There must be separation between citizenship and belief—they cannot be interconnected. Each Egyptian citizen must be entitled to ALL citizenship rights. Presently, all Egyptian Bahá’ís are deprived of their citizenship rights simply because of their belief. They are denied government-issued ID cards which are a necessity in order to continue to live in Egypt as a human being. Nothing in normal daily living can be accomplished without these ID cards. […]

In Egypt, it appears to be perfectly acceptable for the government to force the Bahá’ís to pay taxes like all other citizens, but seems to have no hesitation in depriving them of all their civil rights and all services due to them. The authorities cannot demand taxation from Bahá’ís with nothing in return. Is there any justice in this? This fact alone raises a very big question! One would expect that ID cards (and the national ID number) must be used in order to pay taxes!

This atrocious (not to mention ridiculous) treatment of Egypt’s own law-abiding citizens is all the more poignant in light of the news that appeared today about Egypt’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council. From the Toronto Star:

Despite abuse, Egypt joins rights council: History of torture in African nation makes a mockery of UN, critics say
Olivia Ward, Foreign Affairs Writer

In Egypt, Canadian bank teller Mohamed el-Attar is facing 15 years in jail on spy charges he says he confessed to under torture. Human rights groups say prisoner abuse is routine in the North African country.

In New York yesterday, Egypt won an uncontested seat on the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council, which is meant to defend the rights of the vulnerable worldwide.

What part of this equation doesn’t compute?

“Things like this leave one worried that all the fine things said last year when the council was created aren’t being played out in practice,” says Alex Neve, who heads Amnesty International’s Canadian office.

More than a dozen human rights groups asked the 192-country General Assembly not to vote for Egypt in yesterday’s election to fill 14 seats on the Geneva-based council, charging that the country’s record “is full of serious human rights violations that have been practised widely for long years.”

They named torture, arbitrary detention, election rigging and the use of military courts for trying civilians as reasons not to back Cairo’s bid.

Critics cite Egypt’s win—along with Qatar and Angola, with similarly dubious human rights records—as a sign that the council, created last year to replace the politically charged UN Human Rights Commission which had become known as “the abuser’s club,” is already irrelevant.

read more… »

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations back in October, the Baha’i International Community, the non-government organization (NGO) representing the world’s Baha’i population at the United Nations, published a statement titled “The Search for Values in an Age of Transition“. The statement focuses on “the importance of the oneness of humanity and religious freedom as critical values in the process of UN reform”. From the press release:

“The blurring of national boundaries in the face of global crises has shown, beyond a doubt, that the body of humankind represents one organic whole,” says the statement, which is titled “The Search for Values in an Age of Transition.”

Accordingly, the oneness of humanity must become the overriding focus as humanity searches for solutions to global challenges such as poverty, AIDS, environmental degradation, terrorism, and the proliferation of weapons.

“It is clear that none of the problems facing humanity can be adequately addressed in isolation from one another,” the statement says.

“The increasingly apparent interconnectedness of development, security and human rights on a global scale confirms that peace and prosperity are indivisible — that no sustainable benefit can be conferred on a nation or community if the welfare of the nations as a whole is ignored or neglected.”

Moreover, the statement asserts that the issues surrounding religion and freedom of belief have now risen to a level of “consuming global importance, which the United Nations cannot afford to ignore.”

“While the General Assembly has passed a number of resolutions addressing the role of religion in the promotion of peace and calling for the elimination of religious intolerance, it struggles to grasp fully both the constructive role that religion can play in creating a peaceful global order and the destructive impact that religious fanaticism can have on the stability and progress of the world,” the statement says.

“A growing number of leaders and deliberative bodies acknowledge that such considerations must move from the periphery to the center of debate — recognizing that the full impact of religion-related variables on governance, diplomacy, human rights, development, notions of justice, and collective security must be better understood.”

You can read and study the full text of the statement yourself. Or, if you’re the type who likes indepth reading, you can check out the Baha’i Statement Library, which allows you to search through every statement released by the BIC since the inception of the United Nations in the 1940s.

Here’s news from the Baha’i World News Service regarding the latest resolution adopted by the UN’s General Assembly on the situation of human rights in Iran. A recent story mentioned a similar resolution being passed by the General Assembly’s Third Committee.

UN General Assembly approves resolution expressing concern on human rights in Iran

UNITED NATIONS, 20 December 2006 (BWNS) — The United Nations General Assembly yesterday adopted a resolution expressing “serious concern” over the human rights situation in Iran, including the escalation of violations against Iranian Baha’is. […]

Put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 43 countries, the resolution calls on Iran to “eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination based on religious, ethnic or linguistic grounds, and other human rights violations against persons belonging to minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Baha’is, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, and Sunni Muslims.”

The resolution takes particular note of the worsening situation facing Iran’s 300,000-member Baha’i community, noting “reports of plans by the state to identify and monitor Baha’is,” “an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention,” and “the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs.”

The resolution also expresses concern over the “destruction of sites of religious importance” to Baha’is and “the suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits” for Baha’is.

Read the whole story.

A UN resolution passed yesterday, originally put forward by Canada, made specific mention of the worsening plight of Iran’s Baha’is. From the Baha’i World News Service:

UN expresses “serious concern” over human rights in Iran, including the situation of Baha’is

UNITED NATIONS, 22 November 2006 (BWNS) — A committee of the United Nations General Assembly yesterday passed a resolution expressing “serious concern” over the human rights situation in Iran, including the escalation of violations against Iranian Baha’is.

The resolution passed the Assembly’s Third Committee by a vote of 70 to 48 on 21 November 2006. It will now go to the General Assembly plenary for vote, in December. The Third Committee considers human rights issues for the Assembly.

Put forward by Canada and co-sponsored by 43 countries, the resolution calls on Iran to “eliminate, in law and in practice, all forms of discrimination based on religious, ethnic or linguistic grounds, and other human rights violations against persons belonging to minorities, including Arabs, Azeris, Baha’is, Baluchis, Kurds, Christians, Jews, Sufis, and Sunni Muslims.”

The resolution takes particular note of the worsening situation facing Iran’s 300,000-member Baha’i community, noting “reports of plans by the state to identify and monitor Baha’is,” “an increase in cases of arbitrary arrest and detention,” and “the denial of freedom of religion or of publicly carrying out communal affairs.”

The resolution also expresses concern over the “destruction of sites of religious importance” to Baha’is and “the suspension of social, educational and community-related activities and the denial of access to higher education, employment, pensions, adequate housing and other benefits” for Baha’is.

Read the whole story.

photo by shrued (creative commons)

An article about a certain Canadian Baha’i lawyer is currently featured on the front page at the Baha’i World News Service website, on the occasion of her joining up with the Baha’i International Community as a representative to the United Nations. You may remember an announcement to this effect being posted here back in January. Way to go, Tahirih!

The illustrious Ilya is leaving for a period of service in Haifa and would like to invite all his peeps to the family home (84 Juniper Road, Chelsea) on Saturday, September 9th, from 7 to 11 pm, to see everybody one last time before he goes. Technically, the occasion will also be a time to commemorate ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to Canada in August-September 1912, but you know you want to say goodbye to Ilya too.

Sahar (of reddawn.ca) sends word of an awesome video of a junior youth animator training session in Montreal - this past June, I think. You may recognize some of the people in it… Check it out:

While you’re at it, you can check out another video - this time, of the Tristan Schuurman Junior Youth Project in Ottawa, back in August 2004. You may recognize some of the people in that one, too!

Oh and Sam is back in town. Rejoice! And beware.

From the Baha’i World News Service (BWNS):

Iran confiscates Baha’is’ properties, says UN

Baha’is in Iran face discriminatory housing policies, including “the abusive use of property confiscation,” said a United Nations report released at a news conference last week.

At least 640 Baha’i properties have been seized since 1980, according to Miloon Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, who wrote the report and presented it to the news media on 29 June 2006.

“The properties listed included houses and agricultural land, but also Baha’i sacred places such as cemeteries and shrines,” said Mr. Kothari. “The affected owners have allegedly not been given an opportunity to participate or receive prior information related to ongoing confiscation procedures.”

He said, for example, many of the confiscations were made by Iranian Revolutionary Courts, and that some of the verdicts he examined declared that “the confiscation of the property of ‘the evil sect of the Baha’i’ [were] legally and religiously justifiable.”

In rural areas, he said, such confiscations were often accompanied by threats and physical violence before and during related forced evictions.

Mr. Kothari said he was “concerned at the clear evidence of discriminatory conduct with respect to Baha’i property, including housing.”

At the news conference, Mr. Kothari said he continues to receive reports about Baha’is who have had their land confiscated.

Read the whole story.

Baha’i Blog picked up a New York Times story about the Baha’is of Iran. Check out the blog post on bahaiblog.net, or read the original story (be prepared to log in to the NYT web site though).

Also to be perused: The Globe and Mail published a web-only comment about the situation of the Baha’is of Iran, Canada’s most well-known national newspaper, written by Maurice Copithorne, a former United Nations special representative on the human-rights situation in Iran. Here’s an excerpt:

The recent harassment of Baha’is also took the form of 30 mostly negative, and often defamatory, articles that appeared in one of the official Tehran dailies last fall. Asma Jahangir, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, published a statement in March reporting the existence of a confidential letter of Oct. 20, 2005, distributed within the government calling on officials - reportedly on the instructions of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - “to identify persons who adhere to the Baha’i faith and monitor their activities.”

The special rapporteur declares that “such monitoring constitutes an impermissible and unacceptable interference with the rights of members of religious minorities.” She expresses concern that the result of such monitoring “will be used as a basis for the increased persecution of, and discrimination against” Baha’is.

She also said that, since taking up her mandate in July of 2004, she had intervened with the government on a number of occasions regarding the treatment of the Baha’i community. And she called on “the government of Iran to refrain from categorizing individuals according to their religion and to ensure that members of all religious minorities are free to hold and practise their religious beliefs, without discrimination or fear.”

[ . . . ] Iran would seem to be one of the handful of countries in which the human-rights situation is now visibly deteriorating. In the past several years, Canada has been taking the lead in promoting a UN General Assembly resolution condemning the human-rights situation in Iran and, no doubt, will do so again this year.

More needs to be done. Iran failed in its efforts to be elected to the new UN Human Rights Council. The April resolution establishing the council instructed it to “undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfilment by each state of its human-rights obligations and commitments.” The order in which countries will be called before the council has yet to be determined. Given the growth in Iran of violations of international human-rights norms as set out in a variety of UN instruments, Iran should clearly be among the first group of respondents.

(Updated [11/06/2006]: Reuters AlertNet also has a story available on the arrests of Baha’is in Iran.)

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