A UN investigator has listed 21 countries that punish apostasy. Ahmed Shaheed, the former foreign minister of the Maldives, told the UN that apostasy in some countries—Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen—apostates may be subject to the death penalty. The UN investigator also pointed to repression of Christians in North Korea, of Muslims in Thailand, and of Uighurs in China.