In 2017, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized the UNESCO Education 2030’s initiative as a vehicle of Western influence in Iran and other prominent official figures accused it of promoting homosexuality or ‘perversion’, as it advocates against the use of violence against students and therefore may discourage teachers from confronting students of diverse sexual orientation or gender identity.42 Students are reportedly physically and mentally abused by teachers and school administrators because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity, pushing them in some cases to drop out from school.43 In 2016, the Committee on the Rights of the Child specifically raised concerns about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children in the Islamic Republic of Iran Iran facing discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or identity.44 Access to information about STDs/STIs and their appropriate targeted treatment, as well as general safe-sex advice is very limited in Iran, restricting significantly the access to sexual health for the heterosexual cisgender population, and almost entirely for the LGBT community.45 As Iranian authorities consider minority sexual orientations and gender identities as disorders that can be corrected through medical treatment, it is particularly difficult for LGBT individuals to seek proper healthcare, including mental healthcare, as they are actively pushed to “treat” their homosexuality, through counselling or reassignment surgery. 46 47 In a number of reported cases, such medical interventions have been carried out without prior informed consent or individuals were subjected to forced administration of hormones and medication, 48 49 50 which is a grave violation of the right to health51 and may amount to torture.52 In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the lack of laws or legal mechanisms protecting transgender individuals against discrimination and the absence of recognition of transgender individuals who do not pursue sex reassignment surgery leave them without legal guarantee to their rights afforded by the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights. Transgender individuals who do not wish, cannot or have not been medically allowed to go through sex reassignment surgery are not eligible to obtain legal recognition corresponding to their gender identity. As a consequence, they face barriers to access higher education, employment and 42 Quote from Assembly of Experts member Ahmad Alamolhoda, among other examples, cited in Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 43 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf 44 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 45 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 46 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf 47 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 48 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2014, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/DiagnosingIdentities-Paralyzing-Bodies.pdf 49 Report of the Secretary General on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2019, https://undocs.org/en/A/74/273 50 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2018, http://6rang.org/english/2422 51 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, August 2009, https://undocs.org/A/64/272 52 Interim report of the Special Rapporteur n torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, July 2008, https://undocs.org/en/A/63/175 5