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).