A/HRC/22/51 III. Protecting the freedom of religion or belief of persons belonging to religious minorities A. Introductory remarks 14. The vulnerable situation of persons belonging to religious or belief minorities has attracted increased international attention in recent years. 3 States, civil society organizations, national human rights institutions, the media and other stakeholders have expressed their interest in developing strategies for more efficient protection of the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities worldwide. Such debates have also repeatedly taken place in United Nations forums, including the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council and the Forum on Minority Issues. 15. Although people from all religious or belief backgrounds may be exposed to antiminority victimization when living in a minority situation, certain religious communities have a particularly long-lasting history of discrimination, harassment and even persecution. Human rights violations perpetrated against members of religious or belief minorities are multifaceted in motives and settings while the perpetrators may be States or non-State actors or both (see III. C. below). These violations account for the need for concerted action. 16. Besides the problem of ongoing human rights violations, the issue of the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities also poses a number of conceptual challenges which require systematic clarification. Misunderstandings and misperceptions, such as frequently occur in this field, may have adverse implications for the consistent conceptualization and implementation of the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities. Hence, overcoming existing conceptual misunderstandings is not merely an academic endeavour but has practical relevance. B. Conceptual clarifications 1. The human rights framework in general 17. The rights of persons belonging to religious or belief minorities should be consistently understood from a human rights perspective, and must be protected in conjunction with all other human rights. This clarification, which prima facie may seem trivial, is necessary since minority issues are often associated with concepts of minority protection that historically emerged outside of the human rights framework. It seems fair to acknowledge the historical merits of some of those protection systems in having facilitated the peaceful coexistence of different communities. However, one should be aware that they may differ conceptually from the norms and principles of universal human rights. Nonetheless, components of different forms of minority protection continue to play an important political role and can even permeate the rhetoric of human rights without always being conceptually consistent with the human rights-based approach. This is a source of much confusion with possibly adverse implications for the practical implementation of the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities. 3 For example, Human Rights Council resolution 19/8 includes nine references to religious minorities, whereas neither the Universal Declaration of Human Rights nor the 1981 Declaration explicitly mentions religious minorities. 5