A/72/365 organizations and faith-based actors (including family members). The Special Rapporteur notes that under article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the State has a duty to protect individuals from rights abuses perpetrated by non-State actors. 33. There have been increasing reports of vigilante mobs perpetrating acts of arson, acid attacks, lynchings, rapes and murders in the name of religion in cases involving allegations of apostasy, blasphemy, heresy, sorcery and homosexuality. The hallmark of many of these attacks is the degree to which “structural violence” and/or overt incitement to discrimination or violence are present as factors. “Structural violence” refers to political, economic and social arrangements that harm individuals or otherwise hinder their access to basic needs but that are often subtle, invisible and not attributable to one specific person or group of people. 12 Such violence, in the form of discrimination and marginalization of minority communities, exposes such communities to victimization and predisposes law enforcement authorities to be capricious in their application of the rule of law. 34. State authorities have a duty to protect individuals and groups against discrimination and other acts that violate the rights of persons based on their religion or belief. There is an emerging consensus that non -State actors, especially in situations where armed and/or terrorist groups exercise effective control over a territory or a population, are also obligated to comply with human rights principles and standards. United Nations human rights bodies, agencies, mechanisms and offices, including commissions of inquiry and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have addressed human rights violations committed in the name of religion by Al -Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hizbullah, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Taliban (see A/HRC/28/66, paras. 54 and 55). Groups targeted include atheists, Copts, Jews, Shia and Yazidi, as well as bloggers and dissenters, women and girls and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. Where these violations occur in the context of armed conflict, they may also amount to war crimes and other breaches of international humanitarian law. Furthermore, certain acts committed by non-State actors may amount to “international crimes” and trigger individual responsibility under the principles of international criminal law. 35. While civil society actors, including faith-based organizations, often play a crucial role in countering hatred, some have also been responsible for hate speech that contributes to stigmatizing particular communities and generating a climate of fear, discrimination and violence. Hateful discourses frequently target dissenters within established or minority religious communities. Violations carried out by individuals may range from harassment in public places to acts of terrorism. These acts may be motivated or justified by religious beliefs, as in the case of numerous terrorist attacks carried out in the name of religion in recent years or because of the presumed faith identity of the victims. 36. Most violations carried out in the name of religion by family members are gender based. Examples include honour killings, female genital mutilation, corporal punishment, early and forced marriage, marital rape and other forms of domestic violence, sati and coercive practices related to sexual or gender identity, education, dress, employment, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of assembly and recreation. Most of those crimes are likely to go unreported and undocumented. An environment characterized by intolerance and capricious rule of law often facilitates or enables the commission of such rights violations. Intolerant environments may be fed by religious privilege shaped b y violent extremist __________________ 12 17-14822 Johan Galtung, “Violence, peace, and peace research”, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 69. No. 3 (1969). 11/24