E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1 Page 37 General information received from the Government By letter dated 28 June 2004, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran provided the Special Rapporteur with information about the latest developments in the administration of justice with respect to minorities, in particular, the establishment of the Committee of Minorities, which would be competent to deal with the problems of religious minorities in Iran; the issuance of a presidential circular on the facilitation of recruitment of members of religious minorities to the public sector; and the adoption of a bill which would allow members of minorities to receive blood money equal to Muslims, a law that in practice had been enforced in various court cases. Observations 142. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government for the information received. However, she is still awaiting replies to the several communications related to particular cases, as well as a reply to her request for an invitation to visit Iran. 143. She would also like to draw the Government’s attention to the fact that the information she has received, including concerning the Bahá’ís, was the subject of concern expressed by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in its most recent concluding observations on Iran (CERD/C/63/CO/6 of 21 August 2003) in which it noted “the reported discrimination faced by certain minorities, including the Bahá'ís, who are deprived of certain rights, and that certain provisions of the State party's legislation appear to be discriminatory on both ethnic and religious grounds”. The Special Rapporteur therefore joins the Committee in recommending “that the State party ensure that all persons enjoy their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, without any discrimination based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin … [and] that the State party permit students of different origins to register in universities without being compelled to state their religion. Iraq 144. On 10 November 2004, the Special Rapporteur transmitted a communication to the Government of Iraq regarding information according to which on 7 November 2004, several men reportedly attacked a Christian church in Doura district in south Bagdad and set it on fire. The ensuing explosion injured at least 20 persons. Earlier, before dawn on 16 October 2004, five churches were hit by bomb attacks that seemed designed to intimidate the country's small but deep-rooted Christian community. This followed a deadlier series of bombings of five churches in Baghdad and Mosul that reportedly took place during evening services on 1 August 2004, killing 11 people and wounding more than 50. The wave of explosions began after 6 p.m. as parishioners gathered inside their neighbourhood churches for services. In the past year alone, over 100 reported and confirmed victims have been members of the Chaldo-Assyrian community. 145. The attacks against Iraq's 750,000-member Christian minority seemed to confirm community members’ fears that they might be targeted as suspected collaborators with United States forces, amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.