A/68/290 recognized religions and also bearing in mind the human right to change one’s religion or belief. Again, this presupposes a holistic understanding of freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women as mutually reinforcing human rights norms. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 67. The relationship between freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women displays many facets and is exposed to numerous political, jurisdictional, theological and philosophical controversies. In the face of conflicting human rights concerns put forward in the name of freedom of religion or belief and/or in the name of equality between men and women, the two human rights norms themselves are sometimes perceived as standing in general opposition to one another. While acknowledging the reality of complicated conflicts in this field, the Special Rapporteur emphasizes that one must not draw the wrong conclusions from this experience. In particular, it would be problematic to turn concrete conflicts between different human rights issues into an abstract antagonism on the normative level itself. 68. Unfortunately, the idea that freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women represent essentially contradictory human rights norms seems to be widespread and has even gained currency in parts of the larger human rights community. As a result, possible synergies between freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women remain underexplored. Even worse, existing human rights work in this field is sometimes openly discouraged or delegitimized. Moreover, an abstractly antagonistic construction of the two human rights norms cannot do justice to the needs, wishes, experiences and specific vulnerabilities of many millions of women whose life situations falls within the intersection of discrimination on the grounds of their religion or belief and discrimination on the ground of their sex or gender. This problem disproportionately affects women from religious minorities. 69. In keeping with the formula coined at the World Conference on Human Rights that “[a]ll human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated”, the Special Rapporteur underlines the positive interrelatedness of freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women. Upholding this holistic approach even in complicated situations is important for a number of practical reasons: it encourages the search for synergies in this area and facilitates an appreciation of sufficiently complex human rights approaches; it provides the horizon for coping appropriately with perceived or factual conflicts in a manner that does justice to all human rights norms involved in such conflicts; and it is the precondition for systematically addressing the human rights concerns of persons whose specific problems and vulnerabilities fall in the intersection of different human rights norms. 70. Abstractly antagonistic constructions of the relationship between freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women are often based on a misunderstanding of the human rights nature of freedom of religion or belief. As a human right, freedom of religion or belief does not protect religions per se (e.g. traditions, values, identities and truth claims) but aims at the 13-42191 19/22