A/79/182 religious or belief representatives, leaders, actors and voices, including the voices of women, young persons and minorities. 113 66. Religious or belief representatives, leaders 114 and actors have long contributed to conflict prevention, whether in terms of providing early warning, sharing understanding of the factors driving conflict, or offering mediators and/or their “good offices” in facilitating prevention. Interfaith dialogues and coopera tion have also been recognized as making a “valuable contribution” to promoting social cohesion and peace, and preventing conflict. 115 B. Freedom of religion or belief in conflict mitigation 67. When fully respected, freedom of religion or belief creates circumstances in which alternative ideas of security and peace develop, challenging the normalization of militarization and war in international affairs, and even in human rights. It roots decisions on justice in individual conscience, allowing each and all to be able to engage with their own conscience, and not just to be led by others: “Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed.” 116 68. Freedom of religion or belief encourages deep reflection on matters of conscience and includes the dynamic of continued understanding and interpretation of matters relating to thought, conscience and religion. As a distinguished scholar of peace research opined, the comparative advantage of religions is their “transcendence perspective”. 117 They have the potential to enable people to stand against calls for violence and violent extremism, especially violence in the name of religion. This can hollow out the power base of those who instrumentalize religion for power. It can therefore offer resi lience against a climate of religious nationalism, political violence and incitement. 69. Freedom of religion or belief also allows the liberation of the conscience of individuals and communities to commit to the defence of peace, even in the midst of war. It is an unshackled human conscience that has contributed to the principles of humanitarianism in war, the understanding of the nobility of each and all without condition, and even the meaning of “humanity” 118 itself. Freedom of religion or belief, and the independent thinking, engaging and reasoning it offers, can also contribute to expanding language so that people are able to articulate visions of positive peace and sustainable peace, not merely military cea sefires or the end to particular arms sales. 70. Religious or belief representatives, leaders and actors have often played key roles in the mitigation of conflict and a turn towards peacemaking. One such entry point has been appeals to ensure that religious sites and places of worship are not targeted in conflict. 119 Another has been appeals by religious or belief representatives, __________________ 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 24-13239 Search for Common Ground, “Freedom of religion and belief roundtables: key learnings from Search for Common Ground in Lebanon, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan 2020 –2023”. See Ioana Cismas, “The relevance of International law standards to religious leaders” and Gunnar M. Ekeløve-Slydal, “Broader normative bases for religious leaders to prevent hate speech” in Religion, Hateful Expression and Violence, Morten Bergsmo and Kishan Manocha, eds. (Brussels, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, 2023). Security Council resolution 2686 (2023), para. 4. Constitution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), preamble. Johan Galtung, speech dated 22 May 2012. Hugo Slim, “The power of humanity: on being human now and in the future”, Humanitarian Law and Policy, 30 July 2019. Examples include the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (Sovereign Order of Malta). 17/22