A/HRC/28/64/Add.2 42. The Special Rapporteur met with leaders of the Muslim and Christian communities in Plateau and Kaduna States. In Jos, she met leaders of the Muslim community, who highlighted that the root causes of the violence against Muslims in the State included the stigmatization of the Muslims, which had been caused by a widespread perception of Muslims as “threats”. Political leaders were accused of playing a key role in fuelling the tensions. Muslim leaders also stressed that Boko Haram did not represent Islam in Nigeria or globally and had also targeted and killed Muslims. 43. Leaders highlighted other problems faced by the Muslim community, including the impossibility to obtain an indigenes certificate despite numerous years of residence, the lack of adequate political representation at the local and state levels and difficulties in gaining access to university, given that scholarships were reserved for indigenes. One of the participants stated that “this means making marginalized communities more marginalized”. 44. In Kaduna, the Special Rapporteur met with the Executive Secretary of the Northern Christian Association of Nigeria. He claimed that distorted religious principles lay at the root of the problems and violent episodes of intercommunal conflicts. He noted that political competition was another factor leading to intercommunal conflicts, as the Christian community had begun to get more involved in politics and governance. He affirmed that, in order to address the menace of Boko Haram, it was necessary to combine an effective security response with appropriate education measures, including human rights education in the school curriculum. 45. While recognizing the profound problems and diverse challenges that threaten sustainable peace in the Middle Belt, the Special Rapporteur was impressed by numerous initiatives led by the civil society and religious leaders to achieve conflict resolution and bridge the gap between communities in both Plateau and Kaduna States. In Jos, she learned about examples of Muslim leaders working in partnership with Christian leaders to address together the conflicts and find adequate solutions collaboratively. 46. In Kaduna, the Special Rapporteur met with the leaders of the organization Christian-Muslim Alternative to Conflict, which was established in 2013. The organization gathers several Christian and Muslim groups and its main focus is to promote dialogue and mediation in community conflicts as a tool to achieve peace and foster interreligious dialogue. She also learned about the activities of the Interfaith Mediation Center, a nongovernmental organization founded in 1995 that had been conducting peacebuilding and mediation work to settle conflicts between Muslim and Christian communities across the Middle Belt. 47. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to learn about peacebuilding initiatives led by women. She met with the president of the Women Without Walls Initiative, an organization jointly founded and run by Christian and Muslim women in Jos that works to implement a non-violent and inclusive approach to conflict resolution through various educational community projects targeting women and young people. Its initiatives include the rehabilitation of schools, organization of conflict management seminars for young people and the implementation of programmes to foster women’s economic empowerment. The Initiative also promotes awareness of the role of women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution. 48. Other peacebuilding initiatives led by women included a peace education project in Bauchi carried out by a young woman using her own resources who had been working with hundreds of children in different schools to foster understanding, trust and mutual acceptance among them as well as to engage them with children in other countries affected by conflict. 12