E/CN.4/2003/66/Add.1 page 11 (d) The Associations Act of 4 December 1990 44. The reason why the Associations Act is mentioned here is that it applies to religious associations among others. Article 5 states that any association founded in pursuit of a purpose counter to the established institutional system, public order, public morals or current regulations is automatically null and void. Associations are different in purpose, denomination and operation from any kind of political association and may not sustain any kind of relationship, whether organic or structural, with the latter, nor receive from them subsidies, gifts or legacies of any kind, nor help to finance them (art. 11). Associations may be dissolved by the courts at the request of the public authorities or in response to a complaint from a third party, if they engage in activities contravening the law in force or other than those stipulated in their statutes (art. 35). 45. Foreign associations, i.e. those which are based abroad or led entirely or partly by foreigners, require the prior approval of the Minister of the Interior before being set up (art. 40), and the Minister can suspend or withdraw his approval if they engage in activities other than those stipulated in their statutes or if they are likely to, or indeed do, adversely affect the territorial integrity of the nation, national unity, the State religion or national language, public order or public morals (art. 42), or if they refuse to provide the authorities with the documents and information they are asked for concerning their activities, financing, administration and management. 4. Regulations 46. The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Endowments provided the Special Rapporteur with the texts of numerous decrees on the organization, operation and powers of its central and regional services. The most interesting of their provisions are set out briefly below. 47. Within the central administration, the Department of Religious Orientation and Koranic Instruction, instituted by decree dated 28 July 2000, is responsible for monitoring the activities of mosques and sermons, conducting research with a view to improving the guidance offered by non-binding legal rulings (fatwa), and issuing certificates of conversion to and confirmation in Islam. According to a decree dated 27 April 1991, imams are responsible for order in the mosques and for protecting them from any activity unrelated to religious matters. 48. Regionally, the Department of Religious Affairs in each wilaya is responsible for ensuring that the mosques can play their assigned role as religious, educational, cultural and social centres, taking action to ensure that the religious and educative activities of the mosques and Koranic teaching institutions can proceed smoothly, monitoring the activities of religious associations approved at the wilaya level, and giving explicit permission for mosques to be built within the wilaya. 49. The Minister of Justice asserts that positive law does not permit any discrimination and there is no religious discrimination because the divinely revealed religions all enjoy the same legal status; the courts have means at their disposal, and the Algerian State is intolerant of intolerance.