E/CN.4/1996/95/Add.1 page 19 92. The Special Rapporteur considers furthermore that a special effort should be made with regard to legislation applying to places of worship, education and political parties. 93. Places of worship should be reserved for religious and not political matters. As places of prayer and meditation, they should be protected from tensions and political strife. This will not come about so long as the State does not, by adopting and applying appropriate legislation, guarantee the neutrality of places of worship and shelter them from political excesses and ideological and partisan struggles. 94. Official educational policy should be set out in appropriate framework legislation aimed at combating illiteracy more effectively and advocating values based on human rights and tolerance, with the purpose of achieving a balanced development of the personality, avoiding the extremes of domination and submission on the one hand and rebellious tendencies on the other. 95. The legislation concerning political parties should ensure that long-standing religious values are not interfered with by short-term political interests. Political parties which express political feelings based on religion, while engaging in peaceful political activities, do not a priori give rise to concern. Parties claiming to be the front-line fighters, spokesmen or standard-bearers of religions, however, are often little inclined to defend tolerance and human rights. For this reason, an increasing number of States are outlawing political parties based exclusively or mainly on religion. 96. It has to be borne in mind, moreover, that any financial dependence of political and religious movements on foreign sources can have weighty implications in many respects. 97. The Special Rapporteur requests that the authorities in all circumstances ensure the serene operation of justice by protecting the courts from the pressures of demonstrations and crowds. 98. Lastly, the Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that a general policy based on tolerance should be asserted in a clearer and more determined manner, and applied gradually over time, without precipitation. Notes 1/ "L’état du monde", 1995 edition. 2/ The Ahmadis, who are members of a religious group founded in the nineteenth century by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, consider themselves Muslim, but have been looked upon as heretics in Pakistan owing to their attitude regarding the finality of the Holy Prophet Mohammed. 3/ This Act declared that "the Injunctions of Islam shall be the supreme law of Pakistan" and provided for the Islamization of education and the economy, while specifying that none of the provisions of the Act would "affect the personal laws, religious freedoms, traditions, customs and way of life of non-Muslims".

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