A/71/269 The Special Rapporteur can merely appeal to reluctant Governments to reconsider their position and honour their obligations under international law, includ ing by respecting, protecting and fulfilling everyone’s right to freedom of religion or belief. IV. Conclusions 73. The full scope of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief is often underestimated, with the result being an inadequate awareness of the broad range of violations that take place in this area. Given its nature as a universal human right, freedom of religion or belief cannot be limited to any list of legitimate religious “options” predefined by Governments. Instead, it recognizes human beings broadly as subjects of profound identity-shaping convictions and conviction-based practices, thus always taking the selfdefinition of all human beings as the starting point. Freedom of religion or belief is a multifaceted right, covering individual, relational, institutional and infrastructural dimensions of freedom, that people should be able to exercise as individuals and/or in community with others, in private as well as in public. In keeping with the human rights-based approach in general, freedom of religion or belief furthermore requires non-discriminatory implementation, which implies positive efforts towards overcoming all forms of discrimination — direct, indirect and structural discrimination, by both public and private actors — by taking appropriate measures. 74. For a comprehensive analysis of existing and emerging problems, all root causes, motives and factors underlying violations of freedom of religion or belief must be taken seriously. This includes intolerant and narrow-minded interpretations of religions — in other words, theological issues — as well as political, social and economic factors. While Governments that see themselves as guardians of certain religious truth claims impose restrictive measures against “unbelievers” and “heretics”, other Governments utilize particular religions in order to demarcate their national identities, thus creating dividing lines between “national” and “foreign” religions or between “traditional” and “non-traditional” religions. Yet other Governments violate freedom of religion or belief by exercising excessive political control over religious community life in order to defend authoritarian political structures or party monopolies against possible challenges that may arise from people meeting freely and communicating outside of tightly monitored official channels. Moreover, loss of trust in public institutions may set in motion a process of increasing institutional fragmentation, thus possibly creating a political vacuum, which terrorist or vigilante organizations operating in the name of religion may try to fill. 75. Furthermore, societal power imbalances may lead to situations of increased vulnerability for certain individuals or communities, including persons from lower-caste backgrounds, individuals belonging to religious minority communities or indigenous peoples, whose freedom of religion or belief thus may be at stake, often in conjunction with violations of other human rights. Any analysis of the root causes underlying violations of freedom of religion or belief should also address gender issues. Countless women and girls suffer from human rights violations in the intersection of freedom of religion or belief and gender issues, for example in the context of State-enforced denominational family laws. 16-13296 21/22