A/51/536 English Page 34 Special Rapporteur on the question of religious intolerance 131. In the report on his mission to the Islamic Republic of Iran (E/CN.4/1996/95/Add.2), the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Abdelfattah Amor, reported that according to article 13 of the Constitution, the Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian Iranians were the only religious minorities who, within the limits of the law, were free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies. Furthermore, the authorities confirmed that the rights of minorities provided for in article 13 of the Constitution, especially the right to worship, religious education and family traditions, as well as the right to representation in parliament and the free exercise of their cultural, social and religious activities, were recognized within the framework defined by the State. As far as socio-cultural activities were concerned, minorities had community centres and cultural, social and charitable associations which they financed themselves. However, minorities had no professional access to the army and the judiciary and were limited in their career development; at the lower levels of public courts, minority plaintiffs were usually discriminated against by judges, who treated them as members of a minority and not as Iranian citizens. 132. During his visit, the Special Rapporteur received reports that the right to profess and practise the Bahai’i faith had been denied and that the Bahai’i had been denied the right to meet and to elect and operate administrative institutions. Furthermore, the Bahai’i could not obtain political representation and the application of their religious law in their personal affairs and in those of their community was prohibited. In the educational field, young Bahai’is had been systematically excluded from higher educational institutions. As for other religious minority groups, the protestant representatives stated that their religious activities were subject to restrictions and the Muslim converts were subjected to pressure and close surveillance with a view to inducing them to abandon their religious activities. In his conclusions and recommendations, the Special Rapporteur mentioned that the situation of the recognized non-Muslim religious minorities, namely, the Zoroastrian, Jewish, Assyro-Chaldean and Armenian minorities, was satisfactory. However, with reference to the Bahai’i community, the Special Rapporteur believed that there should not be any controls that might, through prohibition, restrictions or discrimination, jeopardize the right to freedom of belief or the right to manifest one’s belief. VII. INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS Council of Europe 133. In accordance with the declaration of the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Council of Europe adopted at the Summit Conference held on 8 and 9 October 1993, a framework convention specifying the principles which the contracting States commit themselves to respect, in order to assure the protection of national minorities had been drafted and adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 10 November 1994. It was the first legally binding multilateral instrument protecting national minorities in general. The Convention contained provisions covering a wide range of areas: non-discrimination, promotion of effective equality, promotion of the conditions regarding the preservation and /...