A/HRC/4/21
page 11
elaboration of the 1981 Declaration. Due to a diligent approach by the mandate-holders during
the first couple of years, the mandate evolved step by step. Thus it was possible to establish
activities such as sending letters of allegation and urgent appeals, carrying out in situ visits and
drafting thematic reports. The change of the mandate title in 2000 was another important step
because it confirmed the enlargement of the mandate’s scope. Similarly to the 1981 Declaration
the initial title used to be “Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance”. Upon suggestion of the
second mandate-holder, Abdelfattah Amor, it was changed to “Special Rapporteur on freedom of
religion and belief”. He argued that the new title encompasses not only religions but also beliefs
(e.g. agnosticism, freethinking, atheism and rationalism) and that it facilitates cooperation with
all parties concerned. The concept of freedom of religion or belief is broader than the original
non-discrimination approach.
29.
The Special Rapporteur will continue to highlight issues that are of particular concern to
the mandate through her communications with Governments and victims as well as during her in
situ visits and in thematic reports. In her activities she will remain vigilant in the task of
protecting the individual and collective aspects of freedom of religion or belief but she will also
deal with the preventive facets of the mandate. With regard to prevention, an important step has
been taken five years ago, when the Final Document of the International Consultative
Conference on School Education in relation with Freedom of Religion and Belief, Tolerance and
Non-discrimination was adopted in Madrid. The previous mandate-holder, Abdelfattah Amor,
had been instrumental in setting up this International Consultative Conference, held on the
occasion of the 20th anniversary of the 1981 Declaration. There have been promising follow-up
activities by Governments and NGOs during global meetings of experts and exchanges of minds
on regional levels. However, these implementation efforts need a fresh impetus in order to
further develop strategies on how religious intolerance and discrimination can be prevented and
how freedom of religion or belief can be promoted through education. The Special Rapporteur
would like to emphasize the need to devise a strategy for the prevention of discrimination and
intolerance based on religion or belief.
C. Online digest of the framework for communications
30.
There is a wealth of information and legal reasoning to be found in the reports of the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief throughout the past 20 years. The three
mandate-holders have so far submitted 63 reports to the Commission on Human Rights, to the
General Assembly and to the Human Rights Council, totalling more than 2,600 pages. While
electronic versions of the full texts of the reports since 1993 are available online via the Official
Document System of the United Nations (http://documents.un.org), finding the relevant answers
to a given question may be compared to looking for a needle in a haystack.
31.
For this reason, Ms. Jahangir intends to develop an online digest of the Special
Rapporteur’s framework for communications and to upload it on the OHCHR website
(http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/religion/standards.htm). In the annex of her previous
annual report the Special Rapporteur has published this framework with various categories of
relevant provisions of international human rights law which she uses as the legal yardstick. The
five main categories cover: (1) elements of the right to freedom of religion or belief;