A/HRC/13/40/Add.3 entered into effect on 15 June 2008. The Secretary-General noted in a recent report22 that Kosovo authorities continued to act on the basis of the “Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo” and made public statements, asserting that they had no legal obligation to abide by Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). At the same time, the Government of the Republic of Serbia as well as many Kosovo Serbs reject the authority of Kosovo institutions derived from the “Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo”. The United Nations has adopted a position of strict neutrality on the question of Kosovo’s status. D. Religious demography 48. The lack of a recent official census and the boycott by various communities to past census exercises in Kosovo makes all statistical data approximate. With regard to the religious demography, it is estimated that out of the 2 million people living in Kosovo, about 85 per cent are Muslims, 5 per cent are Serbian Orthodox Christians, 3 per cent are Catholics, 1 per cent are Protestants and 6 per cent belong to other religions or are atheists or agnostics. 49. Many of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors pointed to the perceived correlation between ethnicity and religious affiliation, since the majority of Albanians in Kosovo are Muslims with a small Catholic minority, whereas most Serbs living in Kosovo are members of the Serbian Orthodox Church. They referred to significant changes in Kosovo’s religious demography, especially with regard to the proportion of ethnic Albanians and Serbs due to massive displacements before, during and after the military intervention of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops in Kosovo in spring 1999.23 E. Issues of concern for the mandate 50. The Special Rapporteur would like to highlight some aspects of the status of freedom of religion or belief in Kosovo. In this chapter, she will focus on the following three issues of concern: (a) violence and incitement to racial or religious hatred; (b) religious symbols; and (c) intra-religious and inter-religious tensions. 1. Violence and incitement to racial or religious hatred 51. The Special Rapporteur is worried about acts of violence and incitement to racial or religious hatred perpetrated against Muslims and Serbian Orthodox Christians, respectively. (a) Situation of Muslims 52. The Special Rapporteur’s mandate is usually confronted with cases of discrimination targeting members of religious minorities in a given society. In Kosovo, however, the vast majority of the population is Muslim, mostly of Albanian ethnicity, who have suffered enormously, indeed as others, from the persecution of the Milošević regime in the 1990s. Discrimination and repression was followed by armed conflict involving the loss of lives, disappearances and abductions, massive displacement and forcible expulsions affecting mainly Kosovo Albanians, but also Kosovo Serbs and members of other ethnic groups. The deterioration of the humanitarian crisis prompted the military intervention in the spring of 22 23 S/2009/300, paras. 2, 7 and 40. For figures and further information on the context of internal displacement, see the mission reports of the Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons (E/CN.4/2006/71/Add.5, paras. 8-9 and A/HRC/13/21/Add.1). 15