A/HRC/34/56 adherence. The report argues that assembly and association rights can play a positive role in preventing extremism. 55. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted in a 2006 report to the General Assembly that “the politicization of culture in the form of religious ‘fundamentalisms’ in diverse ... religious contexts has become a serious challenge to efforts to secure women’s human rights” (see A/61/122/Add.1, para. 81). The former Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, Abdelfattah Amor, noted the rise of religious extremism and its negative impact on the rights protected by his mandate (see E/CN.4/1999/58, paras 115-127). Further, he called for the elaboration of a “minimum set of standard rules … in respect of religious extremism” (ibid., para. 125 (a)). 56. The Commission on Human Rights in 1998 urged States to “take all necessary action to combat hatred, intolerance and acts of violence, intimidation and coercion motivated by intolerance based on religion or belief, including practices which violate the human rights of women and discriminate against women” (resolution 1998/18, para. 4 (c)). 57. The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted by the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, “stresse[d] the importance of … the eradication of any conflicts which may arise between the rights of women and the harmful effects of … religious extremism” (para. 38). 58. The issues of fundamentalism and extremism per se have not been systematically analysed by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, which have instead tackled symptoms of these underlying problems and sometimes critiqued human right abuses by Governments in response. No treaty body has ever issued a general comment specific to the problem of fundamentalism or extremism. The issue has been mentioned by some treaty bodies, such as in the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on a report of Tunisia, noting that “the promotion of women’s rights was the best safeguard against extremist … movements” (see A/50/38, para. 262). 59. In 2014, the Security Council adopted resolution 2178 (2014), encouraging Member States to empower youth, families, women, religious, cultural and education leaders in their fight against violent extremism (para. 16). In 2015, the Security Council adopted resolution 2250 (2015), in which it emphasized the importance of education in countering violent extremism. These resolutions created the basis for further involvement of UNESCO in efforts to counter extremism, an approach which the Special Rapporteur supports, and which requires adequate resources. 60. The Special Rapporteur concurs with the Secretary-General and the United Nations Development Programme that implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is a critical component of combating violent extremism, and indeed all forms of extremism and fundamentalism. 23 However, extremism and fundamentalism are also undoubtedly major obstacles to the successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Special Rapporteur regrets that this fact did not receive adequate attention in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In particular, there are serious implications for the goals regarding health, education, promotion of inclusive societies and, especially, gender equality. 23 See the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (A/70/674), and United Nations Development Programme, Preventing Violent Extremism through Promoting Inclusive Development, Tolerance and Respect for Diversity: report of the global meeting, p. 27. 13