E/CN.4/2000/65 page 48 a spirit of tolerance and respect”. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the initiative of the Geneva Spiritual Appeal, issued and signed in the course of an inter-denominational religious service by representatives of various religions and by the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the High Commissioner for Refugees (HCR) and the World Health Organization (WHO), on 24 October 1999, in Geneva, for United Nations Day. He also welcomes the establishment by UNESCO of the World Council for Interreligious Dialogue and expresses the hope that this will have the effect of furthering exchanges between religions. 181. Education and inter-religious dialogue, in other words, constitute essential means in both the medium and long term, of preventing the currently observed violations resulting from religious extremism, from special policies, legislations and practices, and from discrimination attributed to religion affecting women. Needless to say, such preventive action in no way excludes the on-going deployment of all means of combating existing violations. 182. This approach, based both on management (which is and remains necessary and even fundamental) and on prevention, should inspire the initiatives encouraged by the Special Rapporteur, especially the preparation of a plan of action on the condition of women with regard to religion and to policies, legislation, traditions and practices either derived from or attributed to religion. 183. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to stress the need for States to adopt initiatives to strengthen tolerance with regard to religion and belief, especially on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly on 25 November 1981 of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination based on Religion or Belief. This anniversary could provide an opportunity to review the situation as regards the “management” of intolerance and discrimination and to establish a plan of action for prevention, the two main pillars of which might be dialogue and education. -----