E/CN.4/1995/91 page 144 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur continued to receive communications - in increasing numbers and based in most cases on specific evidence - alleging violations of rights and freedoms proclaimed in the 1981 Declaration. Through dialogue initiated with Governments, the Special Rapporteur requested clarification of and views and comments on particular cases or incidents, requested documents and information, suggested approaches, drew attention to situations and called for urgent initiatives or measures, as the circumstances required. In addition to the cooperation that was shown him in fulfilling his mandate, the Special Rapporteur appreciated the interest and open-mindedness with which many Governments considered the matters with which he was charged, as well as their determination to resolve the problems raised. The Special Rapporteur still believes that the attitudes of reluctance which he sometimes noted, on rare and isolated occasions, have to be dealt with patiently, through dialogue and with determination to see prevail both the rights and freedoms proclaimed by the 1981 Declaration and all the international instruments relating to human rights, and the justifiable concerns of all the parties involved. Any prejudgment constitutes, in his view, a wrong approach; any generalization is an error and any excessive action will ultimately be meaningless. The situations involved are highly complex and therefore cannot readily be reduced to types and classifications and even less to slogans and clichés. The culture of human rights, and particularly of tolerance, cannot be decreed. It is learned and absorbed progressively through initiatives and measures over the long term, which, although altering with time, should not be conjugated in a past tense. The Special Rapporteur firmly believes that the achievement of religious tolerance and non-discrimination must go together with the achievement of human rights as a whole. Human rights cannot be promoted in the absence of democracy and development. Consequently, action to promote human rights, including the right to religious freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination, must involve, at one and the same time, measures to establish, strengthen and protect democracy as an expression of human rights at the political level, and measures to contain and progressively eliminate extreme poverty and to promote the right to development as an expression of human rights and human solidarity in the economic, social and cultural areas. As has very frequently been observed, the interdependence of all people is something quite obvious. Selectivity, on the other hand, leads to inconsistency that compromises credibility and therefore endangers the whole structure of human rights. Human rights, and the right to freedom of religion in particular, because the two subjects are extensively linked and interdependent, call for constant attention, thorough investigation and action on the part of States, societies, religious communities and individuals, in a continuous process of interiorization of the values relating to human rights, democracy and development. It is because human rights, in their various complementary expressions, are at a level above contingencies and variables that they must be sheltered from anything that can undermine their foundations or damage their mechanisms and protection procedures.

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