A/HRC/34/56
(m) Take all necessary measures to respect and ensure the human rights of
human rights defenders, including cultural rights defenders and women human rights
defenders, challenging fundamentalism and extremism, including by investigating all
threats and attacks against them, bringing perpetrators to justice and providing
protection where necessary and in agreement with those affected;
(n)
Remove obstacles for the functioning of an independent civil society that
promotes human rights in accordance with international norms;
(o)
Involve human rights defenders, including women human rights
defenders, with relevant expertise, in all programmes and policy discussions regarding
combating fundamentalism and extremism, including at international conferences and
negotiations; ensure that the impact on human rights, including cultural rights, is
always a core agenda item in such forums;
(p)
Provide for and protect the separation of religion and State and
guarantee religious freedom, including the right to believe, not to believe and to
change one’s belief, in accordance with international law;
(q)
Respect and ensure the right to education for all without discrimination,
in accordance with international standards; take urgent steps to protect schools,
including girls’ schools, students and educators where they are at risk;
(r)
Ensure that schools, curricula and textbooks are not promoting
fundamentalist or extremist ideology or discrimination;
(s)
Ensure that the impact of fundamentalist and extremist ideology and
violence is taught appropriately in schools and through campaigns of public
awareness, including in the media;
(t)
Promote documentation and analysis of fundamentalism and extremism
inter alia through research centres, libraries and museums;
(u)
Act effectively to combat fundamentalism and extremism but refrain
from violating human rights or international law in so doing; not use the legitimate
struggle against fundamentalism and extremism as an excuse for violations of human
rights.
98.
Non-governmental organizations, civil society and experts should:
(a)
Document the role of fundamentalist and extremist ideology in human
rights abuses by State and non-State actors and campaign against both the abuses and
the ideologies that give rise to them;
(b)
Document the impact of State funding in the rise of extremism and
fundamentalism and develop mechanisms for holding such States accountable;
(c)
Support human rights defenders who are combating fundamentalism
and extremism and avoid undermining their work;
(d)
Decline to partner with or whitewash fundamentalists or extremists,
even those who may have been victims of human rights violations and even while
acting legitimately in defence of their human rights;
(e)
Submit cases concerning fundamentalist and/or extremist abuses to
treaty bodies under relevant complaints procedures;
(f)
Work to sensitize the media to the importance of countering
fundamentalism and extremism.
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