According to the Balochistan Human Rights Group, Sabah Bandoui, a representative of the organization, raised alarm over the systematic violations of cultural, linguistic, and religious rights of the Baloch people in Iran during a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. This speech, shared as a video on the group’s social media channels, highlighted the systemic oppression faced by the Baloch as one of Iran’s ethnic and cultural minorities.
In her speech, Bandoui stated: “The right to freely practice and express one’s culture, language, and religion is a fundamental human right. Yet, for the indigenous Baloch people in Iran, this basic right is systematically denied. Ongoing repression not only threatens the cultural identity of the Baloch but also limits their participation in society.”
She pointed to oppressive policies such as extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, and the denial of identity documents to hundreds of thousands of Baloch, describing these acts as clear violations of human rights.
Bandoui stressed that Baloch children are deprived of the right to learn their mother tongue and are even punished for speaking it in schools. She described these actions as a serious attack on the dignity, identity, and cultural heritage of the Baloch community.
She also referred to a recent report by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which urged Iran to take effective measures to address discrimination against ethnic minorities, including greater access to education in their native languages and protection of their cultural rights.
In concluding her speech, Bandoui called for the Iranian government to immediately implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Minorities and urged member states to hold Iran accountable during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in January 2025.
The speech concluded with the slogan, “Woman, Life, Freedom.”
