combined with the Anti-Discrimination Convention, once in force, will constitute instruments of counter-majoritarian protection that should inspire and contribute to the development of other regional and national instruments. Secondly, they are transformative instruments, not only of majoritarian groups, but also of minorities, since every person is entitled to, as well as constrained by, universal human rights. Mr Mohamed Eltayeb, presented on “Towards a Framework for Guaranteeing the Rights of Religious Minorities: a Quest for Combating Religious Hatred”. He underlined that most of the countries in the world today are characterised by an increasing national, racial and religious diversity as well as increasingly multicultural societies, hence the importance of developing an effective framework for granting and protecting the rights of religious minorities. Such a framework requires two main aspects: the normative and institutional resources and then the legal, political, social and cultural frameworks in which the normative content should be applied. Three situations should however be distinguished: first is where there is both a strong normative and institutional basis for granting the rights of religious minorities but without success, second is where there are both weak normative and institutional systems and the third situation is where there are strong normative and institutional resources that lead to effectively protecting the rights of minorities. He stressed that the normative and institutional resources can be found in international and regional human rights instruments, the most remarkable one in this respect being the Declaration. Discussion The following issues were raised during the discussion under Item II: - The significant number of recommendations regarding the rights of religious minorities in the second cycle of the UPR so far; - The fact that States bear the primary responsibility for setting up a national legal framework in compliance with international human rights standards and the importance of cooperation and sharing of good practices in this regard; - Religious freedom is a universal human right that all States have responsibility to uphold; - The importance of recognising the diversity that exists within religious minority groups and the need to take a gender perspective into account in this context; - The importance of respecting the principle of self-identification of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities; - The need for States to revoke existing blasphemy and anti-incitement laws because they exacerbate intolerance and provide Governments with the means of suppressing the freedoms of religion and expression; - The importance of the right to acquire citizenship; - The right to privacy and freedom of association as vital to religious minorities and the right to conversion as an integral part of freedom of religion or belief; - The importance of addressing the particular needs of religious minority women; - The important report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief to the General Assembly underlining the positive inter-relatedness of freedom of religion or belief and gender equality; 5