A/HRC/22/51/Add.1 25. The estimated number of “Latins” ranges from 700 in official records to about 2,000 including those non-registered. There are also Roman Catholics who come from Central America and other immigrants from the Philippines and Sri Lanka, making a total of around 15,000 people. 26. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have 11 Kingdom Halls in the southern part and two in the northern part. There are about 2,500 of them on the island. 27. As a legacy of British colonial rule, the Anglican Church is present on the island. Currently the number of its followers is estimated to be around 180 in the northern part and 400 in the southern part. Members of the different Protestant denominations include Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostalists. Many of their members do not have Cypriot citizenship. 28. The Jewish community, numbering approximately 2,000, includes a very small number of native Jewish Cypriots and a greater number of Israeli, British and other European Jews who are part of the foreign resident community. 29. There are about 200 Bahá’ís living in Cyprus, both in the northern and southern parts, using three Bahá’í centres. In addition, about 20,000 Buddhists live on the entire island: these are mainly immigrants from Viet Nam, China, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Nepal. 30. Atheism, at least in an organized form, does not seem to constitute a widespread phenomenon in Cyprus. However, the Special Rapporteur was told that some currents in Cypriot society are not particularly interested in religious affairs. 31. It is estimated that 99 per cent of the population living in the northern part is Muslim, most following the Hanafi school within Sunni Islam. However, due to farreaching demographic changes in the northern part, the Muslim population also includes an estimated number of up to 10,000 Alevis, mostly migrant workers from Turkey. There are also followers of other schools of Islam living there. 32. As a result of demographic changes due to the settlement of people from Turkey after 1974, the general attitude towards religion in the northern part seems to have changed to a certain degree. While the traditional attitude of Turkish Cypriots vis-à-vis religion has often been described as rather dispassionate, parts of the population living in the northern part whose family roots are in mainland Turkey reportedly display a more traditional pattern of Islamic practice. V. Issues of concern to the mandate A. The impact of the Cyprus conflict on freedom of religion or belief 33. Virtually all interlocutors with whom the Special Rapporteur had a chance to speak agreed that the Cyprus conflict is not, per se, a religious conflict and that the political tensions at the heart of the conflict did not chiefly stem from religious differences. For centuries, people of diverse religious orientations – in particular Christians and Muslims – by and large lived peacefully side-by-side, an accomplishment which surprisingly seems to have survived the various political crises and conflicts that have affected the island, especially in the years before and after independence. When talking with representatives of various religious communities, as well as people from different urban and rural areas in the country, the Special Rapporteur received the strong impression that religious diversity has been embraced by the population at large as a hallmark of Cyprus past and present. 8