their enjoyment of all the rights enshrined in the Covenant, including unhindered access to employment, social services, health care and education Article 3 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran stipulates that the government “has the duty of directing all its resources” to, among other goals, “the abolition of all forms of undesirable discrimination and the provision of equitable opportunities for all, in both the material and intellectual spheres”.31 Article 19 of the Constitution stipulates that all people of Iran enjoy equal rights “whatever the ethnic group of tribe” and that “color, race, language and the like, do not bestow any privilege”.32 Sexual orientation and gender identity are omitted as protected characteristics. Additionally, Article 20 states that all citizens enjoy all “human, political, economic, social and cultural rights, in conformity with Islamic criteria”. As same sex relations are criminalized under the Iranian Islamic Penal Code,33 the “Islamic criteria” condition restricts the enjoyment of human rights for the LGBT community, including the right to work, to social security, to health and education. The Iranian states’ behaviour towards lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals has been hostile and Iranian authorities publicly criticize the country’s lesbian, gay and bisexual community. In 2013, Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran’s high council for human rights said that homosexuality was regarded as “an illness and malady” in the Islamic Republic of Iran.34 Negative comments from Iranian officials have been regularly and recently reported, where they used terms such as “immoral”, “corrupt”, “animals”, “sick” or “Western” to qualify homosexual individuals.35 Such openly hostile behaviour towards the lesbian, gay and bisexual community from government officials may further impair LGBT persons’ access to employment, social services, health care and education as it creates a permissive environment for the exclusion and societal stigmatization against LGBT individuals in Iran. 36 37 38 39 40 41 There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of state measures to address discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and non-legally recognized transgender individuals. 31 The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b56710.html The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b56710.html 33 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/denied-identity-human-rights-abuses-against-irans-lgbtcommunity/#2 34 The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness 35 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/OfficialHate-Speech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf 36 Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/denied-identity-human-rights-abuses-against-irans-lgbtcommunity/#2 37 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf 38 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 39 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf 40 Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4&Lang=En 41 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 32 4