A/52/477 English Page 18 individuals and communities in matters of religion or belief at the national and international levels (see the sixth category). 2. Right to change one's religion 66. Referring mainly to the third category of violations and tangentially to the second category of violations (India and Nepal), the Special Rapporteur wishes to make the following comments on the right to change one's religion. 67. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets forth the principle according to which everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and states clearly that this right includes freedom to change one's religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest one's religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. 68. While the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights are a direct continuation of the Universal Declaration, they do not refer explicitly to the right to change one's religion. 69. Article 18 of the Covenant recognizes in a general way the freedom to have or to adopt a religion of one's choice. The 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief also affirms in a general manner the freedom to have a religion or whatever belief of one's choice. Like the Covenant, the Declaration does not refer formally or explicitly to the freedom to change one's religion, although this should not be understood as an expression of the wish to dilute the content of the provisions of the Universal Declaration. 70. The Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, while recognizing concerns about specific circumstances and calling upon national legislations, strongly affirmed the universality of human rights. 71. The formal variations that surrounded the recognition and development of religious freedom cannot lead to a failure to recognize the right to change one's religion. 72. Lastly, there are many variations on a single theme that have called into question the foundations of religious freedom and have bolstered the position of those who believe that religious freedom cannot include recognition of the right to change one's religion. 73. It is today acknowledged that religious freedom is inseparable from the freedom to change one's religion. 74. As early as 1986, Elisabeth Odio Bénito wrote that, while the provisions of the 1948 and 1981 Declarations and of the Covenant were worded differently, they all had the same ultimate objective, namely, that any person had the right to renounce a religion or belief and adopt another or adopt none at all. That was, she added, the implicit meaning of the concept of the right to freedom of /...