or include a fictional name, which immediately identifies the child as illegitimate, thus enabling discrimination 33. C. Asylum-seeking and refugee children Article 20 of the Constitution restricts the protection of the law and enjoyment of all human, economic social and cultural rights to citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran.34 In 2015, the Supreme Leader issued a decree enabling all Afghan children to attend public schools.35 Following the decree, the government engaged in a number of improvements for refugees and undocumented Afghans, notably by creating an educational support card for undocumented Afghan children, or enabling their enrolment up to secondary school. 36 37 In 2019, UNHCR reported 480,000 Afghan children benefitting from these inclusive education policies, including 130,000 undocumented Afghan children.38 Additionally, the Iranian government passed a new law in June 2020 that would allow for the granting of citizenship to children born of an Iranian mother and a foreign father,39 provided that they have been cleared by national security checks carried by the Intelligence Ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence organisation.40 Due to the fact that this new law has been put into circulation fairly recently, there aren’t any statistical figures to demonstrate its effectiveness.41 The new law would reportedly, and in theory, allow 800,000 children (mostly children of Afghan refugees and Iranian women) to seek citizenship and therefore facilitate their access to State services who had, until now, been deprived of a legal avenue for obtaining an Iranian birth certificate. Despite this recent measure, asylum-seeking and refugee children face discrimination in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including in accessing education. Many refugee children are believed to be out of school. 42 For instance, although refugees are exempt from paying school fees, other https://iranhrdc.org/english-translation-of-books-i-ii-of-the-new-islamic-penal-code/#44 and https://www.refworld.org/cgibin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=5447c9274 ://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19809_E.pdf 34 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/constitutionenglish-1368.pdf 35 UN News, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/12/5defcb6f4/afghan-children-learn-side-side-iranian-peers.html 36 https://www.alnap.org/system/files/content/resource/files/main/UNESCO-Final-Background-Paper.pdf 37 Ibid. 38 UN News, https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/12/5defcb6f4/afghan-children-learn-side-side-iranian-peers.html 39 Radio Farda: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/children-with-iranian-mothers-foreign-fathers-to-receive-citizenship-/30652718.html 40 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://iranhumanrights.org/2019/10/children-born-to-non-iranian-fathers-win-right-to-filefor-citizenship-with-a-catch/ 41 Radio Farda: https://en.radiofarda.com/a/children-with-iranian-mothers-foreign-fathers-to-receive-citizenship-/30652718.html 42 Radio Farda, https://en.radiofarda.com/a/afghan-refugee-children-denied-education-due-to-governmentinaction/29579021.html 5