Since February 2018, Gonabadi Dervishes have faced a crackdown, with hundreds arrested following a peaceful protest and over 200 sentenced to lengthy prison terms, flogging and other punishments. Dozens remained imprisoned on charges including “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security”.39 Reports have shown that members of the Christian converts minority were regularly being arrested on the charges of “Christian activity” (although the Christian minority is recognized by the Constitution) or “acting against national security through propaganda against the regime”.40 Members of the Baha’i faith have faced a range of charges for manifesting their faith, including “collusion and assembly against national security” and “formation and management of an illegal Baha’i group with intent to disturb national security”.41 The Human Rights Committee has stipulated that limitations to manifest one’s religion or belief should only be made on the grounds provided in Article 18.3 of the ICCPR, which does not include national security.42 Additionally, restrictions may not be applied in a discriminatory manner and the limitations on the freedom to manifest a religion or belief for the purpose of protecting morals “must be based on principles not deriving exclusively from a single tradition”.43 Therefore, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the restriction to manifest a religion or belief on the basis of national security and targeting discriminatorily religious minorities is incompatible with Article 18 of the ICCPR. With regard to apostasy, in a previous draft of the Islamic Penal Code (2013), Article 225 was aiming at making 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 The draft article was withdrawn before the adoption of the revised Islamic Penal Code in 2013 and Iranian law does not expressly criminalize conversion from Islam to another religion44. 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 Hadith45), a judge may still invoke Articles 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. Because Christian converts are considered as apostates by Iranian authorities,46 they are barred from accessing officially recognized Christian churches and churches holding services for Farsi-speaking Christians have been 39 Amnesty International , https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1318292020ENGLISH.PDF https://www.en-hrana.org/a-report-on-fatemeh-mary-mohammadi 41 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 42 CCPR General Comment No. 22: Article 18 (Freedom of Thought, Conscience or Religion), https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fb22.html 43 CCPR General Comment No. 22: Article 18 (Freedom of Thought, Conscience or Religion), https://www.refworld.org/docid/453883fb22.html 44 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> 45 Amnesty International <https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1327082016ENGLISH.PDF> 46 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 40 6