for discrimination,30 the document remains in force today. On 26 March 2018, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued, via his website, a new religious decree (fatwa) concerning “association and dealing with Baha’ís”. He stated that, “[y]ou should avoid any association and dealings with this perverse and misguided sect.”31 Baha’is are prohibited from practicing their faith publicly, and they are not allowed to operate houses of worship.32 Baha’i cemeteries have been desecrated, and in some cases turned into parks and cultural buildings and Baha’is have not been allowed to bury their dead in accordance with their religious laws.33 In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the right to convert from Islam to a religion or belief, although not explicitly specified in the law, is criminalized in practice. In a previous draft of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), Article 225 was aimed at making the death penalty mandatory for convicted male apostates, or the crime of ertedad (apostasy). The draft article was withdrawn before the adoption of the revised Islamic Penal Code in 2013 and Iranian law does not expressly criminalize conversion from Islam to another religion34. However, under Article 220 of the Islamic Penal Code and Article 167 of the Iranian Constitution, a judge may refer to Islamic law to rule on crimes not explicitly defined in the law. As apostasy is considered as a hadd offence (a crime for which a fixed punishment is derived from the Qur’an or the Hadith35), thus a judge may still invoke Article 220 of the Penal Code and Article 167 of the Constitution to convict and sentence individuals accused of apostasy on this basis. Commonly, however, the Iranian Judiciary resorts to national security charges instead of apostasy, as demonstrated by the treatment of Christian converts. Because Christian converts are considered apostates by Iranian authorities,36 they are barred from accessing officially recognized Christian churches and churches holding services for Farsi-speaking Christians have been forced to close by the Iranian government.37 As a result, Christian converts gather in informal meetings, commonly called 30 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 31 Baha’i International Community, https://www.bic.org/sites/default/files/pdf/iran/the_bahais_of_iran__a_persecuted_community.pdf 32 NGO joint submission to the Human Rights Committee, 2019, All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva (KMMK-G), Association for the Human Rights Of The Azerbaijani People In Iran (AHRAZ), Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, and Impact Iran, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=INT%2fCCPR%2fNGO%2fIRN%2f4231 7&Lang=en 33 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 18 July 2019 https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 34 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from All Human Rights for All in Iran, Association for Human Rights in Kurdistan – Geneva, Association for the Human Rights of the Azerbaijani People in Iran, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, OutRight International, Siamak Pourzand Foundation, Small Media, Impact Iran, 2020, <https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CCPR_NGO_IRN_42317_E.pdf> 35 Amnesty International <https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF> 36 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, 18 July 2019, https://documents-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N19/222/62/PDF/N1922262.pdf?OpenElement 37 Joint submission to the Human Rights Committee from The World Evangelical Alliance, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Middle East Concern, Article 18, 29 May 2020 , https://articleeighteen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/F3430b2020-JointReport_Iran_HRCttee_ListOfIssues-dragged-1.pdf 5