Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Right in the Islamic Republic of Iran, compiled a report on the status of minorities in Iran to be presented to political leaders Tuesday.

Benjamin Weinthal reports that despite Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s campaign promise to extend citizenship rights to all ethnicities and religions, “the reality is strikingly different.”

The UN report chronicles the closure of churches and the arrests of “their pastors for holding services in Persian or for allegedly ministering to Iranians from Muslim backgrounds.” Tehran has also cracked down on Christian community websites, including blocking their reception and Christian converts have been expelled from Iranian universities.

Shaheed’s report documents the lack of due process afforded religious and ethnic minorities across the spectrum in Iran, ranging from Jews to Baha’is to Sunni Arabs to Armenians and Kurds.

“The Baha’i International Community and Iranian Evangelical Christian leaders added that many of the lawyers who had accepted sensitive Baha’i or Christian cases had been imprisoned or had to flee the country,” the report notes.

This year, the State Department and European Union have both criticized the absence of meaningful reform under the administration of President Rouhani, while Canadian human rights expert, Irwin Cotler, charged that Iran “continues to engage in massive repression.” In addition to the failure of Rouhani to improve the treatment of minorities in Iran, women still face significant discrimination and executions in Iran have increased during his term in office.

[Photo: Ahmed Shaheed / YouTube ]