E/CN.4/2005/61 page 17 IV. GENERAL ISSUES OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF 54. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur has received a great deal of information concerning issues or questions of a more general nature that may not yet have given rise to a violation of the right to freedom of religion or belief but that may potentially cause or constitute such violations. This has mainly been the case of legislation or other forms of regulation related to the question of freedom of religion. While in many cases it has been the content itself of the norm that raised the question of compatibility with human rights law, the difficulty has also often been in the application of that regulation. A. Registration 55. In many cases, religious communities have encountered difficulties related to the procedure for registration, where such exists, of their community. That was the case in communications sent to the Governments of Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, the Republic of Moldova, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 56. The Special Rapporteur has noted in this regard, on the basis of information brought before her, that registration appeared often to be used as a means to limit the right of freedom of religion or belief of members of certain religious communities. 57. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur would like to expressly refer to the “Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief”, prepared by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe/Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) Advisory Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion and Belief in consultation with the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission in 2004.5 Since the panel has extensive experience in compiling information about international norms and best practices based on universal documents and standards, its guidelines are particularly relevant for the situations analysed by the Special Rapporteur. 58. Some main points to take into consideration with regard to registration are that: − Registration should not be compulsory, i.e. it should not be a precondition for practising one’s religion, but only for the acquisition of a legal personality and related benefits; − In the latter case, registration procedures should be easy and quick and not depend on extensive formal requirements in terms of the number of members or the time a particular religious group has existed; − Registration should not depend on reviews of the substantive content of the belief, the structure, the clergy, etc.; − No religious group should be empowered to decide about the registration of another religious group.