The Baha’i International Community issued a report Monday, which charged Iran with failing to meet its own pledges on human rights. The document lists 34 broken commitments, and was presented at a news conference in Geneva.

“Iran has utterly failed in every case to fulfill the commitments it made to improve human rights in relation to its treatment of Baha’is when it stood before the Human Rights Council four years ago,” said Diane Ala’i, the BIC’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, discussing the report.

“The Council is built on the idea that its members will be honest and sincere in their pursuit of human rights, and Iran’s record of ‘unfulfilled promises’ is a sad testimony of the gap between that country’s rhetoric and reality,” said Ms. Ala’i.

The pledges made by Iran came during a procedure known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Held on each member state every four years, the UPR is designed to be a process that treats all states equally in considering their human rights records. Iran’s first review was in February 2010, and it will undergo its next review in October 2014.

The ongoing plight of the Baha’i in Iran, marked by the continued imprisonment of 7 of the community’s leaders, has been emblematic of the lack of reforms instituted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Last year, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa denigrating the faith.

While Rouhani is often characterized as a moderate, human rights violations including widespread religious and political persecution have persisted, and in some cases increased, under his term. Earlier this year both the State Department and the United Nations reported that little meaningful reform has occurred during Rouhani’s tenure, which has been marked by a significant upsurge in executions. The failure to deliver promised reforms has hurt Rouhani politically.

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