Prasad Rajen: Reports — Complaint Regarding the Medicines Regulations 1984—Consideration of Report of Regulations Review Committee Briefing from the New Zealand Baha’i Community—Consideration of Report of Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee Report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on Change in the High Country: Environmental Stewardship and Tenure Review and Related Briefing—Consideration of Report of Primary Production Committee Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Financial Stability Report November 2009—Consideration of Report of Finance and Expenditure Committee 
Prasad Rajen: Reports — Complaint Regarding the Medicines Regulations 1984—Consideration of Report of Regulations Review Committee Briefing from the New Zealand Baha’i Community—Consideration of Report of Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee Report from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on Change in the High Country: Environmental Stewardship and Tenure Review and Related Briefing—Consideration of Report of Primary Production Committee Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Financial Stability Report November 2009—Consideration of Report of Finance and Expenditure Committee 
[Volume:659;Page:8431] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 It is a special pleasure to speak on the report of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee on the briefing it received from the Baha’i community in New Zealand. In doing so I pay tribute to the late Murray Smith a Baha’i and a member of this House from 1972 to 1975. He passed away recently. 
Hon Member 
: The member for Whangarei. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: The member for Whangarei yes. I place on the record of this House the nature of Baha’i community members in New Zealand their essential characteristics and the real concerns they have about the persecution of their members in Iran the birthplace of their religion. I choose to bring this to the attention of my colleagues in Parliament because I know they are intolerant of religious persecution because New Zealand is a key player in the interfaith world and because I have known the Baha’i community in New Zealand for 45 years. 
New Zealand has a large Baha’i community. It is an active responsible productive hard-working intelligent spiritual honest and inclusive group a group of accepting and proud New Zealanders. Many are Iranian Baha’is who escaped the persecution in their homeland in order to lead a better life away from Iran but for whom escape cannot be entirely celebrated because members of their families still remain in their home country and are persecuted. In a country like New Zealand where we tend to take religious freedom for granted it may be difficult for us to imagine persecution on religious grounds—especially the State-sponsored religious persecution that other members have referred to—yet that is exactly the situation faced by the Baha’is in Iran. Baha’is in New Zealand number about 3000 to 4000 and they are perhaps the most diverse community of any in this country comprising people of many different ethnicities nationalities and religious and socio-economic backgrounds. They work consistently and constantly towards the creation of a more harmonious New Zealand society and they are one of the prime actors in promoting the concept of unity and diversity through their race relations work which is something I found particularly helpful to my work as the Race Relations Conciliator from 1996 to 2001. 
The Baha’i faith is the world’s youngest independent monotheistic religion. It was founded in Iran in the mid-1800s and is now practised by around 6 million people around the globe. It is geographically more widespread than any other religion except Christianity according to the  
Encyclopaedia Britannica.  
Baha’is constitute by far the largest religious minority in Iran with approximately 300000 adherents. Their teachings emphasise equality unity justice and peace. They insist on obedience to Government and non-participation in partisan politics. They condemn violence and any form of subversive activity and they strongly encourage a spirit of service to the whole community regardless of religion race gender or socio-economic background. Yet the Iranian authorities have viewed the Baha’i faith as an apostasy that is turning away from the religion of Islam and they have treated it as a threat since its very beginning. 
In the early years more than 20000 Baha’is were killed for no reason other than being Baha’i. The present regime officially recognises Christians Jews and Zoroastrians as religious minorities but does not extend the same status to Baha’is. Instead they are regarded as unprotected infidels. More than 200 Baha’is have been executed since the 1979 revolution. In 1980 the clergy moved to destroy the Baha’i leadership. On 21 August of that year all nine members of the Baha’i national governing council were arrested and they disappeared without trace. It seems certain that they were executed. The following year eight of the nine Baha’i elected to replace those who disappeared were also executed. In 1983 the Iranian Government formally banned all elected Baha’i religious institutions—a ban with which the community immediately complied as a sign of goodwill in order to demonstrate their obedience to the Government. 
In 1991 a memorandum was prepared at the request of the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani. That memorandum includes statements such as: “The government’s dealings with them must be in such a way that their progress and development are blocked … They can be enrolled in schools provided they have not identified themselves as Baha’is.” but they are required to identify themselves. “They must be expelled from universities either in the admission process or during the course of their studies once it becomes known that they are Baha’is.” It goes on: “Deny them employment if they identify themselves as Baha’is. Deny them any position of influence such as in the educational sector etc.” This policy remains current and is being applied with increasing intensity throughout Iran. Indeed it has given birth to a number of other policy documents calling for all Baha’i to be identified and for their activities to be monitored. It smacks of some other persecutions that we can all identify. 
As a result of such policies Baha’is are routinely arrested detained and then released having paid sometimes exorbitant bail. Baha’i students are denied access to tertiary education and may even be denied access to kindergarten and to primary and secondary education. Baha’i businesses are being denied licences and may be subjected to arson. Cemeteries are being desecrated property confiscated bank loans refused and employees sacked. 
Early last year the Iranian regime imprisoned seven unofficial leaders of the Baha’i community. They have now been held for more than 18 months without access to legal counsel without formal charges being laid and in seriously substandard conditions. In February of this year news media reported that the seven would be tried on charges of espionage for Israel insulting religious sanctities and propaganda against the Islamic Republic. I add my caution to what the Hon Chris Carter said which is that this is not a commentary on all Muslims; this is a commentary on a particular regime. Later an additional charge was announced: spreading corruption on Earth a charge that may result in the death penalty. Trial dates have been set and repeatedly postponed. At present there is no trial date. 
I have been reliably advised that there is abundant documentary evidence to confirm not only that this persecution is taking place but also its scope intensity and almost routine nature. This evidence has been accepted as genuine by the United Nations Amnesty International the International Federation of Human Rights the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights Human Rights Watch Nobel Peace Prize laureates and numerous Governments around the world including New Zealand’s. Still these actions continue despite the fact that Iran was one of the first signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is also a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. Its actions are also in clear violation of its own constitution and of the Holy Koran. 
I think this Parliament would agree that such actions are unacceptable and constitute a serious breach of human rights. They are a travesty to everything that New Zealand parliamentarians believe in and because New Zealand has always stood firm and spoken out when it has needed to I commend to this House the three recommendations of the select committee. This issue affects us all not just because it affects some of our compatriots but because we are responsible world citizens and advocates and upholders of human rights everywhere. It has been my pleasure to speak on behalf of the Baha’i community in New Zealand. I have heard these comments from them for a number of years now and this is the first opportunity I have had to formally put this on the record of the House. Thank you. 
Motion agreed to.