A/HRC/22/51 enriching the fabric of society as a whole”.6 This general purpose of minority rights is also laid down in a more comprehensive manner in the 1992 Minorities Declaration, whose article 1(1) provides that “States shall protect the existence of the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity.” 23. In the context of human rights, the identity of a person or a group must always be defined in respect of the self-understanding of the human beings concerned, which can be very diverse and may also change over time. While generally applying to different (ethnic, linguistic, etc.) categories of identity, this principle of respecting every person’s selfunderstanding is even more pronounced when it comes to defining religious or belief identities, since the development of such identities relates to the human right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief. This human right has received international recognition in a number of instruments, including article 18 of the Universal Declaration, article 18 of the International Covenant and the 1981 Declaration. Freedom of religion or belief empowers all human beings to freely find their own ways in the broad field of religion or belief, as individuals and in community with others. They have the freedom, inter alia, to retain, adopt or change their religion or belief; to broaden their horizons by communicating with members of their own communities or with people holding different convictions; to hold religious ceremonies alone or with others; to educate their children in conformity with their own faith; to import religious literature from abroad and to network with co-religionists across State boundaries. Individuals also have the right not to be exposed publicly in their religious or belief-related orientations against their will and to keep their convictions to themselves. 24. Measures used to promote the identity of a specific religious minority always presuppose respect for the freedom of religion or belief of all of its members. Thus, the question of how they wish to exercise their human rights remains the personal decision of each individual. Strictly speaking, this means that the State cannot “guarantee” the longterm development or identity of a particular religious minority. Instead, what the State can and should do is create favourable conditions for persons belonging to religious minorities to ensure that they can take their faith-related affairs in their own hands in order to preserve and further develop their religious community life and identity. 25. Positive measures are often urgently needed to facilitate the long-term development of a religious minority and its members. The added value of article 27 of the International Covenant and similar minority rights provisions is that they call upon States to undertake such measures, which thus become an obligation under international human rights law. According to article 4(2) of the 1992 Minorities Declaration, States should “take measures to create favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs, except where specific practices are in violation of national laws and contrary to international standards”. This requires a broad range of activities. For instance, support measures may include subsidies for schools and training institutions, the facilitation of community media, provisions for an appropriate legal status for religious minorities, accommodation of religious festivals and ceremonies, interreligious dialogue initiatives and awareness-raising programmes in the larger society. Without such additional support measures the prospects of the long-term survival of some religious communities may be in serious peril, which, at the same time, would also amount to grave infringements of freedom of religion or belief of their individual members. 6 Human Rights Committee general comment No. 23 (1994) on the rights of minorities, para. 9. 7