A/HRC/10/8/Add.3 page 20 V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59. Historically, India has been home to believers of a whole range of religions and beliefs and India’s society is still characterized by a remarkable religious diversity. The Supreme Court has recently emphasized that “India is a country of people with the largest number of religions and languages living together and forming a Nation”. The Special Rapporteur would like to acknowledge that such diversity poses particular challenges for the executive, legislative and judicial branches. There are democratic safeguards within the political system and the institutions have accumulated a vast experience in protecting human rights. Many of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors have pointed to the positive impact of Indian secularism as embodied in the Constitution as well as to the high degree of human rights activism in India. 60. The central Government has developed a comprehensive policy pertaining to minorities, including religious ones. In this context, the Special Rapporteur would like to laud the Prime Minister’s New 15 Point Programme for Welfare of Minorities as well as various reports on religious minorities, for example the reports issued by the committees headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar in 2006 and by Justice Renganath Misra in 2007. Such committees mandated by the Government are good examples of mechanisms put in place to analyse the situation and put forward recommendations for Government action. Concrete follow-up to such recommendations both at the national and at the state levels seems vital in order to address the problems identified in these reports. 61. The National Commission for Minorities, too, has taken up several challenges. Their members took prompt action and issued independent reports on incidents of communal violence with concrete recommendations. However, the performance of various state human rights commissions depends very much on the selection of their members and the importance various governments attach to their mandates. It is vital that members of such commissions have acute sensitivity to human rights issues and they must reflect the diversity of the state, particularly in terms of gender, since women are often subject to religious intolerance. The inclusion of women in such commissions would be welcomed by the Special Rapporteur as she noticed that women’s groups across religious lines were the most active and effective human rights advocates in situations of communal tension in India. 62. All of the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors recognised that a comprehensive legal framework to protect freedom of religion or belief exists, yet many of them - especially from religious minorities - remained dissatisfied with its implementation. Since the political system of India is of a federal nature and states have wide powers, including in the field of law and order, the level of action of the Government to protect its citizens in terms of freedom of religion or belief varies from state to state. The Special Rapporteur would like to recognize the efforts and achievements of the central Government. However, several issues of concern with regard to intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief remain pertinent, especially in the context of certain states.