minorities may well amount to attempts to compel believers or non-believers to adhere to their religious belief and congregations, to recant their religion or belief or to convert. The Human Rights Committee has stated that such conducts are inconsistent with Article 18 of the ICCPR.31 C. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others (Article 18.3) Article 14 of the Constitution sets out that the government and Muslims in Iran are “dutybound to treat non-Muslims in conformity with ethical norms and the principles of Islamic justice and equity, and to respect their citizen rights”. Articles 23 to 27 of the Constitution provide for freedom of expression, assembly and association as well as the freedom to practice ones’ religion. However, this duty applies only to those “who refrain from engaging in conspiracy or activity against Islam and the Islamic Republic of Iran”, a charge that is regularly held against certain religious minorities. Additionally, a bill on “misguided sects” 32 has been adopted by the Committee for Judicial and Legal Affairs of Parliament in July 2019, that would criminalize the membership in groups the government considers “misguided”. The bill would risk unrecognized religious minorities finding themselves effectively criminalized. According to the Government, the Charter of Citizenship Rights, decreed by the President in 2016, functioned as an administrative mechanism providing guidance for the implementation of the principles, norms and laws stipulated in the Constitution.33 Article 26 of the Charter stipulates that “the Government shall, according to the law, guarantee freedom of speech and expression”.34 Article 43 of the Charter provides that citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran “have the right to form, join and participate in political parties, societies, social, cultural, scientific, political and trade associations and non-governmental organizations in compliance with the law”.35 In practice the mechanism does not resolve the absence of legal protection for religion minorities against discriminations. The lack of legal safeguards enables the Iranian authorities to criminalize activities such as attending a house church or being part of religious conferences as criminal acts on the basis that they can threaten the existence of the Islamic Republic and thus constitute a national 31 UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), CCPR General Comment No. 22: Article 18 (Freedom of Thought, Conscience or Religion), 30 July 1993, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fb22.html 32 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 28 January 2020, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G20/021/53/PDF/G2002153.pdf?OpenElement 33 Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Islamic Republic of Iran, 27 December 2019, https://undocs.org/A/HRC/43/12 34 Charter of Citizen’s Rights English translation, December 2016, http://president.ir/en/96865 35 Charter of Citizen’s Rights English translation, December 2016, http://president.ir/en/96865 5