A/HRC/43/61 42. The Special Rapporteur has continued to receive reports of the arrest, detention and sentencing of members of the Baha’i faith. Baha’is have faced a range of charges, including “collusion and assembly against national security” and “formation and management of an illegal Baha’i group with intent to disturb national security”. In October 2019, three Baha’is were sentenced to between 5 and 10 years’ imprisonment. In September 2019, the appeal court upheld the five years’ imprisonment sentence of another Baha’i individual, while two other Baha’is each received six-year prison sentences in a separate case. 43. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the continuing use of excessive force against and extrajudicial killings of Kulbarans and Sokhtbaran border couriers. According to reports, an 18-year-old Sokhtbar was killed in September 2019 after the security forces shot his car, which carried fuel. Similarly worrying reports were received about Kulbarans being killed by security forces’ gunfire, including two Kulbars on 23 November 2019 in West Azerbaijan Province and one Kulbar on 2 December 2019 in Kurdistan Province. Due to the high rate of unemployment in the Provinces of Sistan and Baluchistan and Kurdistan, courier work remains one of the few ways for the population to acquire income. In its comments, the Government has said that it tries to address the issue by setting up border markets and free zones, such as in Baneh region. 44. The Special Rapporteur continues to receive worrying reports of violations of the economic, social and cultural rights of minorities. For example, the Kurdish, Ahwazi Arab and Azerbaijani-Turk communities are concerned about the limited access they have to education in their mother tongues. Moreover, he is concerned about the arbitrary detention of Kurdish language teacher Zahra Mohammadi since 23 May 2019. While reports indicate that her arrest was linked to her teaching of the Kurdish language, the Government has accused Ms. Mohammadi of cooperating with illegal opposition parties. The Special Rapporteur also remains highly concerned about the denials of the right to education for religious minorities, with continuing reports of Baha’i students being rejected from entering university despite passing the required examinations. III. Conditions of detention 45. The Islamic Republic of Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These treaties, combined with a range of other texts, have established a framework aimed at safeguarding the rights of imprisoned and detained persons. The General Assembly has, for example, adopted the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules),76 the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, 77 the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners 78 and the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules).79 A. Violations of civil and political rights 1. Denial of access to a lawyer 46. Upon arrest and during the pretrial investigation stages, it is vital that a person subjected to interrogation has access to a lawyer of his or her own choosing. 80 Members of 76 77 78 79 80 12 Resolution 70/175, annex. Resolution 43/173, annex. Resolution 45/111, annex. Resolution 65/229, annex. See the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 14 (3) (b) and (d); Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 32 (20017) on the right to equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial, paras. 32, 34, 37 and 38; and the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems (General Assembly resolution 67/187, annex).