A/HRC/13/40/Add.2 competing interests? Would the chosen measure be likely to promote religious tolerance? Does the outcome of the measure avoid stigmatizing any particular religious community?16 C. Application of the 2007 Law on the Legal Status of a Church, a Religious Community and a Religious Group 34. The Special Rapporteur was encouraged by the reforms made in the 2007 Law on the Legal Status of a Church, a Religious Community and a Religious Group. It is a significant improvement on the 1997 Law on Religious Communities and Religious Groups, even in comparison to the legal situation after the Constitutional Court had removed in 1998 and 1999 the previous law’s most restrictive provisions owing to their unconstitutionality. The 2007 law itself is fairly liberal, and experts from the Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR)17 and from the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)18 provided several useful comments during its elaboration. 35. The Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize that the 2007 law is in line with international human rights standards. However, its implementation has so far not been streamlined, for example with regard to registration issues and reportedly small religious communities face obstacles in practice when applying for building permits for their places of worship. During the universal periodic review of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia by the Human Rights Council in May 2009, one of the recommendations made was for the Government to monitor the implementation of the legislation concerning freedom of religion with a view to ensuring full enjoyment of the freedom to practice one’s religion by all religious communities and groups in the country (A/HRC/12/15, para. 77). This recommendation was also accepted by the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in September 2009 (see A/HRC/12/15, para. 1). 36. With regard to the terminology of the 2007 law, the Special Rapporteur asked her interlocutors whether there would be a legal or de facto distinction between a church, a religious community and a religious group. During her meeting at the Ministry of Justice, the Special Rapporteur was informed that churches, religious communities and religious groups were all equal before the law and that the different terms used in the 2007 law gave the various entities a liberty to choose between these categories. Article 2 of the 2007 law gives a common definition for churches, religious communities and religious groups to be “voluntary communities of natural persons who on the basis of their religious conviction and sources of their teaching exercise the freedom of religion, united by the religion and identity manifested in the same conduct of religious service, prayer, rites and other forms of manifestation of one’s religion”. 37. However, according to article 35 of the 2007 law, all churches, religious communities and religious groups registered by the body competent for relations between the State and religious communities until 1998 shall maintain their existent legal personality and status. In this regard, members of civil society raised their concerns that the 1997 Law on Religious Communities and Religious Groups used to differentiate between registered religious communities and other religious groups, which in practice might still 16 17 18 12 See E/CN.4/2006/5, para. 58. See OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion or Belief, opinion No. FoRB – MK/033/2005 (Adv Council on FoRB/AC/MASz) of 7 July 2005; Opinion-Nr.: REL - MK/062/2006 (Adv Council on FoRB) of 3 May 2006. See European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), opinion No. 424/2007, CDL(2007)019 of 13 March 2007 and CDL(2007)005 of 22 March 2007.