from Articleeighteen.com
Two UN experts sent an official communication to the Islamic Republic of Iran over the summer, demanding a response to allegations that the oldest Protestant church in Iran faced confiscation and the residents of its compound eviction.
The communication about St Peter’s Church in Tehran, sent on 10 July but only made public 60 days later in accordance with UN protocols, said the move risked “rendering members of recognised religious and ethnic minorities homeless and depriving a long-standing Christian community of its place of worship”.
The experts – the Special Rapporteur (SR) on the Situation of Human Rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mai Sato, and SR on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Nazila Ghanea – added: “We are also concerned that these developments do not appear to constitute an isolated incident, but rather the culmination of a decades-long pattern of measures directed against the Christian community in the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in particular against Persian-speaking Christian worship.”
The communication cited the examples of the confiscation, closure, demolition or repurposing of other church properties in Tabriz, Mashhad, Gorgan and Karaj, and asked “what measures have been taken to provide redress in respect of the properties and affected Christians concerned”.
“These closures and confiscations have had a cumulative effect,” the rapporteurs said. “There were once around 50 Protestant churches offering services in Persian in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today there are effectively none because the three Anglican churches that were permitted to preach in Persian in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz have not been allowed to reopen since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
In a joint message to Article18 after the communication was made public, the rapporteurs said: “We put specific questions to the Government and have not received a response to date. Since then, the compound has been confiscated and the resident families, members of Iran’s recognised Armenian and Assyrian Christian minorities, have been evicted from homes many had occupied for decades. The church has been forcibly closed and guards placed outside to prevent worshippers from re-entering. Forced evictions of this kind are incompatible with international human rights law, and these measures have deprived a long-standing community of both its homes and its place of worship.”
In their communication, the rapporteurs had asked for responses to questions including: