A/HRC/10/8 page 12 right of a non-derogable character which can be limited only under restricted conditions determined pursuant to article 18 (3) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Nevertheless, this right, like other human rights, cannot be used to justify the violation of other human rights. 28. The Special Rapporteur has sent joint communications with other special procedures mandate-holders - such as the Special Rapporteur on the violence against women, its causes and consequences and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children - on cases where women suffer from discrimination on the grounds of gender and religion or belief. In addition, several of her recent country reports include subchapters on the specific situation of women (A/HRC/7/10/Add.2 and Add.3; A/HRC/10/8/Add.2 and Add.3). In these reports, she refers to discriminatory and harmful practices against women, including honour killings, polygamy, marriage of underage girls and prohibition or coercion to wear religious symbols. She has also devoted particular attention to religion-based personal laws, in particular in the areas of divorce, inheritance, custody of children and transmission of citizenship. III. DISCRIMINATION BASED ON RELIGION OR BELIEF AND ITS IMPACT ON THE ENJOYMENT OF ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS 29. In the implementation of her mandate, the Special Rapporteur has always strived to adopt a holistic approach and to examine all issues related to freedom of religion or belief in a non-selective manner. In doing so, she and her predecessors came across a great variety of issues of concern, including cases of discrimination based on religion or belief5 pertaining to civil and political rights, as well as to economic, social and cultural rights. In this section, the Special Rapporteur provides a preliminary analysis on discrimination based on religion or belief and its impact on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. While focusing on economic, social and cultural rights in the present report, the Special Rapporteur recalls that the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action proclaimed that all human rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent and interrelated. Therefore, the distinction made in this section between civil and political rights on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other, should merely be seen as reflecting the terminology used by the two international covenants. 5 The Special Rapporteur prefers to use the term “discrimination based on religion or belief” rather than “religious discrimination”, in order to emphasize that the prohibition of discrimination is not limited to theistic beliefs but also encompasses non-theistic or atheistic beliefs. This is in line with the approach taken by the Human Rights Committee in its general comment 22, para. 2 (“Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The terms ‘belief’ and ‘religion’ are to be broadly construed”), as well as with the approach in the final document of the International Consultative Conference on School Education in Relation to Freedom of Religion or Belief, Tolerance and Non-discrimination (E/CN.4/2002/73, appendix).

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