E/CN.4/1998/6/Add.1 page 22 106. Australia therefore provides an original example of integrated multiculturalism and religious tolerance. This multicultural, multiracial and multi-religious edifice, which is in fact recent, is marked by the coexistence of diversity and the management of plurality, while offering the advantage of ensuring respect for the specific character of individual communities and their integration within Australian society. 107. This unfinished experiment undoubtedly constitutes a contribution by Australia to the international community, in terms of a democratic system of society founded on respect for and the viability of diversity, especially religious diversity. It is worth highlighting the role of established, politically driven institutions, which endeavour to respond to the needs of society, including those of its minorities, and provide ways of alleviating all tensions: these are (a) the judicial system, with judges who recognized many of the liberties of citizens even before the law did, in accordance with the common law system, and the High Court, which has interpreted the principle of religious neutrality in a conciliatory and balanced spirit (allowing public subsidies for denominational schools if granted without distinction) and which defines religion in such a way that most of the new religious movements or sects can find their place in it; and (b) national institutions, such as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Ethnic Affairs Commission. 108. Religious, and in particular Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, generally express satisfaction regarding their situation, which they sometimes go as far as to consider privileged compared with other countries. They are able to flourish as minorities and enjoy the State's political, institutional and financial support, so that insistent claims for greater specificity are able to express themselves quite naturally. 109. Broadly speaking, the situation with regard to tolerance and non-discrimination based on religion or belief seems at first sight to present some paradoxes, although these do not generally give rise to problems. 110. In the first place, as part of its multicultural policy, Australia manages to reconcile cultural, ethnic and religious diversity and the maintenance or even the development of community specificity, including religious specificity, with the integration without assimilation of these minorities in society, or civitas, in the broad sense of the term. Countries with minorities which have difficulty reconciling their specific interests and the general interest of the State could find inspiration in the Australian experiment, bearing in mind the different circumstances which apply. 111. This harmonization of specific interests and the general interest and especially the non-interference between citizenship and minority identities, is therefore remarkable and worthy of interest. 112. Whereas most non-Christian minorities are noteworthy for their religiosity, expressed in terms of religious practice, religious education and their religious claims, especially for recognition of religious days, the predominantly Christian Australian population, whose history and traditions reflect Christian leanings, engages in little religious practice and is