A/67/303 3. Right to try to convert others by means of non-coercive persuasion 26. Freedom of religion or belief is not confined to the dimension of a person’s forum internum but also includes the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief in external acts, such as “worship, observance, practice and teaching”. 14 Such forum externum manifestations can be undertaken “either individually or in community with others and in public or private”.14 It cannot be denied that this covers non-coercive attempts to persuade others, sometimes also called “missionary work”. 15 Communicative outreach activities aimed at persuading others, including religious discourse, can be further based on article 19 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that the right to freedom of expression shall include “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice”. 16 27. Similar to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief has a strong communicative dimension which includes, inter alia, the freedom to communicate within one’s own religious or belief group, share one’s conviction with others, broaden one’s horizons by communicating with people of different convictions, cherish and develop contacts across State boundaries, receive and disseminate information about religious or belief issues and try to persuade others in a non-coercive manner. Indeed, freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression are two mutually reinforcing human rights. 17 In this spirit, article 6 of the 1981 Declaration confirms that the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief includes the freedoms “(d) to write, issue and disseminate relevant publications in these areas”, “(e) to teach a religion or belief in places suitable for these purposes”, and “(i) to establish and maintain communications with individuals and communities in matters of religion or belief at the national and international levels”. 28. Unlike the forum internum dimension as discussed above (namely, the right to conversion and the right not to be forced to convert), manifestations of one’s religion or belief in the forum externum do not enjoy absolute protection. However, the decisive point in international human rights law is that the burden of proof always falls on those who argue on behalf of restrictions, not on those who defend a right to freedom. The relationship between freedom and its possible limitation is a relationship between rule and exception. In case of doubt, the rule prevails and exceptions always imply an extra burden of argumentation, including clear empirical evidence of their necessity and appropriateness. Moreover, any restrictions imposed must meet all the criteria set out in article 18 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, according to which “[f]reedom __________________ 14 15 16 17 10 See article 18 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Formulations such as “missionary work” or “missionary activities”, when occasionally used in the present report, are not intended to reflect specifically denominational concepts. Similar concepts include “bearing witness”, “da’wa” (the call), “invitation”, etc. See Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 34 on article 19: freedoms of opinion and expression, CCPR/C/GC/34, para. 11. See statements made by the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the 2008 expert seminar on the links between articles 19 and 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (A/HRC/10/31/Add.3, para. 3) and at the 2011 series of expert workshops on the prohibition of incitement to national, racial or religious hatred (www.ohchr.org/Documents/ Issues/Expression/ICCPR/HCMessageWorkshops.pdf). 12-46130