A/HRC/13/40/Add.4 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bars coercion that would impair the right to have or adopt a religion or belief as well as policies or practices having the same intention or effect, such as those restricting access to education.13 41. At the same time, the Special Rapporteur was informed by different interlocutors that such unacceptable practices, which are obviously a flagrant violation of freedom of religion or belief, seem to be very much on the decline in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The authorities that she met acknowledged that some incidents had indeed taken place in the past but this has now been corrected. They assured the Special Rapporteur that fresh instructions had been passed down to the local administration level and that these incidents will not be tolerated in the future. Representatives of local administration and members of the Christian community also confirmed this turn of events. 42. Many interlocutors from the Government emphasized that Christianity was spreading in the country and they alleged in this context that some Christian groups were using material assistance or bribes in order to lure poor people into converting to Christianity. However, the Special Rapporteur was neither presented with any evidence in this regard nor did she talk to any alleged victim of so-called “unethical conversion”. In addition, alleged “unethical conversions” seem to be unlikely in practice in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic since all international humanitarian and development NGOs have to work under the close supervision of the Government, which in itself is problematic for the above-mentioned reasons (see paras. 34–39 above). Article 20 of the Decree, for example, requires approval for accepting any assistance from foreign religious agencies or believers, or from international organizations, and every handover of properties must be undertaken in the presence of members of the Lao Front for National Construction and of the local administrative authority. 43. In order to prevent any problems with the authorities, some religious communities, like the Bahá’ís, Muslims and Roman Catholics, seem to refrain in the domestic context from any missionary activity, even if this would be to some extent inherent to their faith. Buddhists and Hindus, on the other hand, generally do not consider proselytism central to their religious obligations. Consequently, the negative aspersion of engaging in alleged “unethical conversions” is mainly cast by the State on some “foreign” Evangelical groups. However, the Special Rapporteur would like to reiterate that missionary activity is accepted as a legitimate expression of religion or belief and therefore enjoys the protection afforded by article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other relevant international instruments. Missionary activity cannot be considered a violation of the freedom of religion and belief of others if all involved parties are adults able to reason on their own and if there is no relation of dependency or hierarchy between the missionaries and the objects of the missionary activities.14 C. Isolation of religious minorities 44. The Special Rapporteur remains concerned about the isolation of members of religious minorities. They have little or no access to higher education and do not seem to benefit from the quota system that exists in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Article 22 of the Constitution requests the State to create opportunities and favourable conditions in education for all people throughout the country, especially people in remote areas, ethnic 13 14 14 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 22 (1993) on freedom of thought, conscience or religion, para. 5. A/60/399, para. 67. GE.10-10542