A/HRC/7/10/Add.3 page 14 legislation requires religious education to “reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain”. 44. Most “maintained” schools in England and Wales must provide a daily act of collective worship. According to section 386 of the Education Act 1996, collective worship in county schools and certain grant-maintained schools “shall be wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”. Children may be exempted upon request of their parents and since September 2007 pupils in the sixth form also have this right of excusal. Sometimes, however, the daily act of collective worship is hard to miss when important notices are made in assemblies held for the purpose. 4. Religious symbols 45. Domestic courts have recently decided several cases concerning school uniform policies which prevented pupils from wearing particular forms of dress or artefacts associated with a religious belief. The contentious symbols included a jilbab (long coat-like garment), a niqab (full veil over the face) and a silver ring engraved with a reference to a biblical verse. In these individual cases the courts found the school uniform policies to be justified and not in breach of the right of a particular pupil to manifest their religion. 46. In October 2007, the Department for Children, Schools and Families issued a “guidance” to schools on school uniform and related policies. This non-statutory guidance strongly recommends wide consultations on school uniform policies including community leaders representing minority ethnic and religious groups and calls on schools to act reasonably in accommodating religious requirements. It further explains that restricting the freedom of pupils to manifest their religion may be lawful if justified on grounds specified in the Human Rights Act, including health, safety and the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. Furthermore, the guidance emphasizes that each case will depend on the circumstances of the particular school and that it is for a school to determine what sort of uniform policy is appropriate for it. 5. Balancing of competing rights 47. Some recent statutory equality provisions are reported to lead to a clash of religious convictions with other strands, for example sexual orientation. On the one hand, some Christian interlocutors raised their concerns that religion would have to conform to a non-religious world view; while not being opposed to antidiscrimination legislation as such, they felt discriminated by sexual orientation regulations and indicated that many Christian adoption agencies would close if not given an opt-out from having to place children with homosexual couples. On the other hand, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community argued that the existing statutory exemptions already favour religion and they stressed that non-discriminatory delivery of goods and services is crucial especially when public services are contracted out to faith-based organizations. 48. The Special Rapporteur was informed about the differences of the pertinent regulations in Northern Ireland and in Great Britain. The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006, which make it unlawful to discriminate or subject another person to