of the Child’s is “to set up plans and programs to promote the child rights and respect to their character” and to monitor and assess the implementation of child rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran,22 there is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of initiatives aiming at addressing cases of harassment, bullying and expulsion from school of children based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. In its general comment on non-discrimination, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, has recognised sexual orientation and gender identity as among the prohibited grounds of discrimination.23 However, discriminations against the LGBTI community is enshrined in the law and deeply rooted in practice in the Islamic Republic in Iran, enabling those who harass, bully, and expulse from school children on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity to act with impunity. Violations of the rights of the LGBTI community, including the harassment, bullying, and expulsion from schools of LGBTI children, stem directly from the criminalisation of same-sex consensual relationships, restrictions around speech in terms of same-sex behavior and strict regulations around transgender persons right to legal recognition. Discriminations against lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex children, as well as transgender children who do not fit the State’s recognition, is implicitly tolerated, if not explicitly encouraged in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Recommendation Status: This recommendation has NOT been implemented. 22 Article 2 National Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child Bylaws Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 20, Non-Discrimination in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 2, para. 2) (E/C.12/GC/20), para. 32. https://www.refworld.org/docid/4a60961f2.html 23 4