Education reportedly launched a plan to return to school children who dropped out.34 There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of governmental measures addressing specifically the issue of dropouts among Ahwazi Arab children. B. The State party should take measures to address the high illiteracy rates among Ahwazi Arabs and Azeris Article 15 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran identifies Persian as the official language but permits the use of “regional and ethnic languages in the press, the mass media, and the teaching of their literature at schools, alongside the Persian language…”.35 However, the restrictive language of Article 15 does not protect fully the right of minorities to learn and teach in their mother tongue. Although Article 101 of the Charter on Citizens’ Rights recognizes the right of citizens to learn, use and teach their own local language and dialect,36 the Charter is not legally binding. Despite these restricted legal guarantees, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran raised concerns about reports of Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab and Azerbaijani-Turk (or Azeri-Turk) lacking access to education in their mother tongues. 37 38 These concerns were echoed by the U.N Secretary General, 39 40 41 noting reports indicating that members of ethno-linguistic minorities, including the Azeri community as well as Arabs, were being denied the opportunity to teach their language in schools. 42 The reported stateimposed ban on Azeri-Turkish being taught in school would go some way in explaining such struggle. 43 In 2016, reportedly up to 40,000 Ahwazi Arab children were denied access to education for failing the Farsi language proficiency test, although Farsi being their second language.44 A lack of teaching in a children’s mother tongue has reportedly been causing high school dropout and illiteracy rates, notably among Azeri45 and Ahwazi Arab children.46 34 Tehran Times https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450506/Plan-for-returning-drop-outs-to-school-started Constitutionof the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://irandataportal.syr.edu/wpcontent/uploads/constitution-english-1368.pdf 36 Charter on Citizens’ Rights, English translation, http://president.ir/en/96865 37 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, January 2020, 35 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_Special_Rapporteur_on_th e_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4361.pdf 38 See more : Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19735_E.pdf 39 IRNA, www.irna.ir/news/83404283/ (in Farsi). 40 Report of the U.N. Secretary General, January 2020, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_SecretaryGeneral_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4320.pdf 41 Report of the U.N. Secretary General, January 2020, https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IR/Report_of_the_SecretaryGeneral_on_the_situation_of_human_rights_in_the_Islamic_Republic_of_IranA4320.pdf 42 Report of the U.N. Secretary General, August 2019, https://undocs.org/en/A/74/273 43 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://iranhumanrights.org/2019/03/irans-intelligence-ministry-slaps-azeri-rightsactivist-with-new-charges-claim-hes-organizing-protests-from-prison/ 44 UNPO, https://unpo.org/article/19590 45 Association for the human rights of the Azerbaijani people in Iran, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19735_E.pdf 46 Center for Human Rights in Iran, https://www.iranhumanrights.org/2013/10/khuzestan-teachers/ 4