Iran is a country with national groups such as the Arab, Baloch, Fars, Kurds, Lur, Turk, and Turkmen. Despite international treaties, Iran through its laws, practices and policies discriminates against all its non-Shia and non-Persian groups.
Minority communities are excluded from taking part in the political and economic arena; 33 years after the adoption of the Iranian constitution, Iran still refuses to implement articles 15 (language rights) and article19 (relative autonomy and equal distribution of wealth).

Consequently, 60 % of children in Iran start school in a foreign language because their language is banned in public and official places. 

Minority communities in Iran are seriously affected by an uneven distribution of socio-economic resources, as most of the national groups live in extreme poverty, and lack access to hospitals, proper education, clean water, and job-opportunities. Rates of illiteracy, poverty, and unemployment are several times higher in ethnic provinces such as Khuzestan, Balochistan, and Kurdistan than in the rest of the country.
Executions and extra-judicial killings as well as imprisonment of national groups are higher than the Farsi population. Minority prisoners are subject to unfair trials with no access to lawyers, and are often held incommunicado.
In recent months, many Arab activists have been arrested. Two of the 65 arrested were mentioned in Dr. Shaheed’s report: Mr. Mohammad Kaabi and Mr. Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan, who were tortured to death in February.
Three elements in my identity - being a woman, ethnically Baloch, and a Sunni - deprive me from having access to political participation, including standing as candidate for presidency in Iran.

The Nonviolent Radical Party requests that special procedures of the United Nations, including the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, be allowed access to national groups’ regions so that they can independently investigate and report on the comprehensive discrimination that we live with.