E/CN.4/1995/91 page 146 The Special Rapporteur also expresses appreciation to the non-governmental organizations for their valuable cooperation. Their detailed information and the concerns they have expressed have been extremely useful to him in fulfilling his mandate. During the period covered by this report, the Special Rapporteur received communications from virtually all regions of the world. Once again he notes that manifestations of religious intolerance occur in countries at varying stages of development and with different political and social systems and are in no way confined to a single faith. The majority of the complaints received concerned violations of the right to have the religion or belief of one’s choice, the right to change one’s religion or belief, the right to manifest and practise one’s religion in public and in private and the right not to be subjected to discrimination on these grounds by any State, institution or group of persons. The Special Rapporteur wishes to draw attention to the fact that the violation of the rights mentioned above also jeopardizes the enjoyment of other human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as in other international human rights instruments. During the present reporting period, violations of the provisions of the 1981 Declaration have had a negative bearing on the right to life, the right to physical integrity and to liberty and security of person, the right to freedom of expression, the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right not to be arbitrarily arrested or detained. The Special Rapporteur once again deplores the frequently serious infringement of the rights of persons belonging to religious minorities in countries with an official or clearly predominant majority religion. He also notes the difficult situation of the members of certain religious denominations in several countries and certain regions, even when they are not strictly minorities, as is the case of the Shiites in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and the members of the Christian communities in the Sudan, Egypt and Viet Nam, as well as the Buddhists in Viet Nam and in the autonomous region of Tibet. The Special Rapporteur notes the continuing extremism and religious fanaticism in certain countries. Although such expressions of religious discrimination and intolerance are often attributable to various economic, social, political or cultural factors which derive from complex historical processes, they are also the result of sectarianism and dogmatism. The Special Rapporteur was disturbed in particular by cases where extremist opinions had been expressed in public and implemented by Governments themselves and cases where the authorities had not taken the necessary steps in time to prevent the expression of such opinions, when they were in a position to do so. In certain cases, the Special Rapporteur had difficulty in establishing a clear distinction between religious conflicts and ethnic conflicts, and between religious intolerance and political persecution. However, he transmitted the allegations to the Governments concerned and invited them to furnish information on the cases reported.