Under the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, race, ethnicity and religion do not distinguish among people, bestowing superiority to one group over another. For this reason, there is no discriminatory approach in laws, legislations or policy-making processes of the IRI.¹¹³

- Yonathan Betkolia, member of Parliament, during Iran’s UPR, 15 February 2010

On 27 August 2010, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Iranian government to bring its domestic laws into full conformity with the CERD Convention on racial discrimination, particularly with regards to the definition of racial discrimination in the Constitution.¹¹⁴

The committee expressed concern with:

The limited enjoyment of political, economic, social and cultural rights by, inter alia, Arab, Azeri, Baluchi, Kurdish communities and some communities of non-citizens, in particular with regard to housing, education, freedom of expression and religion, health and employment, despite the economic growth in [the country.]¹¹⁵

Amongst the committee’s concerns were “the low level of participation” of persons from various ethnic and religious minorities and barriers to their employment by the state.¹¹⁶ The committee also highlighted a “lack of sufficient measures to enable persons belonging to minorities to have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue and to have it used as a medium of instruction.”¹¹⁷

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¹¹³ Human Rights Council, Seventh Universal Periodic Review. Yonathan Betkolia during interactive dialogue, 15 February, 2010, http://un.org/webcast/unhrc/archive.asp?go=100215 (accessed 3 February, 2011).
¹¹⁴ United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Islamic Republic of Iran. U.N. Doc CERD/C/IRN/CO/18-19 (20 September 2010).
¹¹⁵ Ibid, para 15.
¹¹⁶ Ibid, para 17.
¹¹⁷ Ibid, para 12.