E/CN.4/2003/66 page 23 127. This is a particularly important initiative, because African religious leaders have repeatedly shown that their contribution to dialogue can greatly facilitate peace processes; one example of this was the efforts made by Eritrean and Ethiopian religious leaders to put an end to the border conflict that had brought their countries into conflict for more than two years. 128. Other measures, more modest but no less noteworthy, include Malian imams’ commitment, in August 2002, to combat AIDS, in the conviction that the mosque should also provide a focus for the protection of life. Such involvement on the part of religious leaders is particularly important, since Islam, Mali’s majority religion by far, had until then been considered - wrongly - to be obstructing the fight against AIDS. III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 129. An examination of the communications under the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief reveals violations of the principles of non-discrimination and tolerance in the area of religion or belief, of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, of freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief and of freedom to dispose of religious property. 130. This analysis once again shows an overall rise in intolerance and discrimination against religious minorities and women in situations of extreme risk and an increase in religious extremism affecting all religions. 131. Religious minorities are affected primarily by the threat to their very existence as special communities, as exemplified by the deportation of Adventists and Protestants in Azerbaijan; the campaigns of repression against members of Falun Gong, the arrest, imprisonment and expulsion of Tibetan monks and nuns from monasteries and the sentencing of Christians to death in China; the harassment of Christians in Myanmar; the sentencing to death of members of the Ismaili community in Saudi Arabia; and the arrest of Protestants and Adventists in Turkmenistan. 132. Religious minorities are also subject to direct and indirect limitations on the manifestation of their religious identity or belief, as shown by the destruction of Tibetan Buddhist places of worship and the expulsion of nuns and monks from monasteries in China; the occupation and partial destruction of a property belonging to the Armenian Patriarchate in Israel; the closure of places of worship of religious minorities in Eritrea; threats to close Baptist places of worship in the Republic of Moldova and those of the Protestant communities in Turkey; and the prevention or non-recognition of conscientious objection, leading to the imprisonment of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in the Republic of Korea. 133. Intolerance of religious minorities is often practised by non-State entities, mainly religious communities and extremist political and religious organizations. This is the case in the repeated violent attacks by Orthodox extremists on Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentecostals and Catholics in Georgia; attacks on Muslims by Hindu extremists in India; and attacks by Muslim extremists on religious minorities in Bangladesh, Indonesia and