A/HRC/31/18 contrast, would more likely be invoked against excessive provocation relating to religious issues. In short, while freedom of expression seems to signal a “green light” to all sorts of provocation, freedom of religion or belief appears to function more like a “stop sign” to provocation – or such is the perception. 6. In 2006, the previous Special Rapporteur, in a joint report, stressed that “freedom of religion primarily confers a right to act in accordance with one’s religion but does not bestow a right for believers to have their religion itself protected from all adverse comment”.4 This is an important clarification. Freedom of religion or belief is a right to “freedom”, a quality which accounts for its close relationship to other rights to freedom, including freedom of opinion and expression. Moreover, among the various facets covered by freedom of religion or belief, the rights to free personal orientation and free communicative interaction with others constitute indispensable core aspects, which point to the positive interrelatedness with freedom of opinion and expression. To a large extent, both rights move in the same direction — although each has specific features. Articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights display far-reaching analogies in their legal formulations. 7. Both articles have in common the unconditional protection of the forum internum – a person’s inner realm of thinking and believing, and the criteria for drawing limitations with regard to their external manifestations, that is, the forum externum, are very similar. Hence there are good reasons to conclude that the rights to freedom of religion or belief and to freedom of expression do not stand in opposition to each other, but are actually quite close in spirit and formulation. Yet, this positive interrelatedness does not preclude concrete conflicts, as controversial issues may at times emerge at the intersection of both rights. 8. The positive interrelatedness between freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression is not only a theoretical postulate. More importantly, the two rights mutually reinforce each other in practice. This insight should also guide the implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 16/18 on combating intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization of, and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against, persons based on religion or belief, which addresses both rights explicitly. 9. With regard to freedom of religion or belief, States should create favourable conditions for everyone to be able to enjoy this right without fear and without discrimination. This requires, inter alia, taking measures to eliminate all forms of intolerance, stigmatization and negative stereotyping of persons based on their religion or belief, as well as adopting effective policies to prevent acts of violence or incitement thereto, as requested in resolution 16/18. Although this may at times require restricting freedom of expression, in accordance with the criteria established for imposing restrictions in articles 19 (3) and 20 (2) of the Covenant, the right to freedom of expression, above all, provides positive preconditions for combating intolerance by facilitating the creation of communicative counter-strategies in the broadest sense, such as public condemnation of incitement to hatred and public demonstrations in support of targeted individuals or groups. 10. The interrelatedness of freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression was also explored in some detail in the Rabat Plan of Action, which contains the results of a series of regional workshops organized by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2011 and 2012, with the broad participation of international experts, civil society organizations, government representatives, as well as international and regional organizations. 4 4 See A/HRC/2/3, para. 37.