A/56/253 164. The Special Rapporteur also added to his mandate the dimension of prevention, by encouraging and taking part in interreligious dialogue activities (deciding to accord priority to this question during his “traditional” in situ visits; instituting visits to the main religious communities or communities of beliefs; and participating in the UNESCO International Congress on Inter-religious Dialogue and a Culture of Peace) and investing considerable effort in the elaboration of a strategy of prevention in the context of school education through the organization of an international consultative conference on school education in relation to freedom of religion and belief, tolerance and non-discrimination, to be held in Madrid in November 2001. 165. In addition to actions undertaken within the framework of this twofold perspective of management and prevention, the Special Rapporteur decided to propose to the international community concrete measures regarding specific priority questions, namely extremism and the status of women from the standpoint of religion or tradition: (a) Extremism, whether its invocation of religion is genuine or fictitious and whether it adopts, provokes or maintains violence or takes on less spectacular forms of intolerance, represents a violation of freedom and religion alike. It is not exclusive to any society or any religion. The Special Rapporteur has recommended that in the face of this ever-growing and all-pervasive menace to peace that breaks up society and poses a particular threat to vulnerable groups (women and minorities), the international community should react firmly, combating it in particular through the elaboration and adoption of a baseline of commonly accepted rules and principles of conduct and behaviour towards religious extremism; (b) Concerning the status of women, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the international community should support the elaboration and adoption, by all the relevant mechanisms of the United Nations, of a plan of action against discrimination and intolerance against women allegedly prescribed by religion or tradition; he further urges the implementation of the recommendations made in his study, currently being published, on the status of women in relation to religion and tradition. 166. As shown by this assessment, the mandate relating to freedom of religion or belief, from its creation to the present, has managed to adapt to challenges and developments in the field of intolerance and discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, such as the growing role of non-State entities as perpetrators of violations; the development of religious extremism; and special treatment to be accorded to vulnerable groups, in particular minorities and women. It has also adapted to specific problems identified by the Commission on Human Rights, such as defamation, racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and the related intolerance. 167. The efforts made under the mandate to respond to an ever-changing situation have certainly yielded definite results, visible in the short and medium term and ultimately in the long term. Those efforts must, however, be redoubled in view of the magnitude of the task. Yet such an enterprise requires a minimum of human and financial resources within the framework of the mandate relating to freedom of religion or belief. 44