A/HRC/19/60 44. Unfortunately, the Special Rapporteur has received numerous complaints that registration procedures have been used as a means to limit the right to freedom of religion or belief of members of certain religious or belief communities. In some States, certain communities are de facto or even de jure excluded from the possibility of obtaining the status of a legal person or suffer from discriminatory treatment in this regard. Once again, such discriminatory practices disproportionately affect small or non-traditional groups. Often the threshold defined for obtaining legal personality status – for example the provision of a minimum number of followers – does not appropriately take into account the needs of smaller communities. In some States, religious or belief communities are also required to document that they have long existed in the country. Other cases of obstruction relate to the requirement that the registration application be signed by all members of the religious organization and should contain their full names, dates of birth and places of residence. However, some members may legitimately wish to keep their religious affiliation confidential and those who were not included in the registration application might subsequently face difficulties when taking part in religious activities of their fellow believers. Furthermore, some States seem to require in practice not only registration at the national level, but also a separate registration of local branches of religious or belief communities, which in turn leaves local authorities with wide discretionary powers for approving or rejecting the local registration applications. 2. Difficulties encountered by unregistered religious or belief communities 45. As a result of such obstacles, members of unregistered religious or belief communities typically encounter huge difficulties when trying to organize their community life in a stable environment and with a long-term perspective. 46. For instance, without the status of a legal personality, religious or belief communities cannot open bank accounts or engage in financial transactions. As a result, the ownership of places of worship frequently remains precarious, in that real estate assets or other important property only belong to private individuals who informally operate in the service of the community. Whether in the case of death, their successors will continue such activities on behalf of the community or claim the inherited property for different purposes may be questionable. Furthermore, the construction of larger places of worship seems hardly conceivable under such insecure circumstances. In this context, the Special Rapporteur would like to recall that the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief includes, inter alia, freedom to establish and maintain places of worship and freedom to solicit and receive voluntary financial and other contributions from individuals and institutions.13 47. Similarly, communities lacking legal personality status are faced with additional obstacles when trying to establish private denominational schools. This in turn may have negative repercussions for the rights of parents or legal guardians to ensure that their children receive religious and moral education in conformity with their own convictions – a right explicitly enshrined in international human rights law as an integral part of freedom of religion or belief.14 13 14 Article 6 (a) and (f) of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. Article 18, paragraph 4, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. See also article 13, paragraph 3, of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; article 14, paragraph 2, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and article 5 of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. 13