A/HRC/7/10/Add.3 page 16 replacement. However, a suggested statutory amendment to the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill, which would have abolished the blasphemy offence, was rejected by the House of Lords in November 2005. 7. Definition of “religion” or “belief” 52. Both the Equality Act 2006 and the Education and Inspections Act 2006 provide that “religion” means any religion, that “belief” means any religious or philosophical belief and that a reference to these terms also includes a reference to lack of either religion or belief. In addition, judgements have given further guidance on the court’s role in identifying a religious belief calling for protection under freedom of thought, conscience and religion, notably the House of Lords in the recent case of R. (Williamson) v. Secretary of State for Education and Employment (2005) UKHL 15. 53. Furthermore, the Charities Act 2006 introduced a statutory definition of charitable purposes, one of which is “the advancement of religion”. It defines the term religion to include religions which involve belief in more than one god and religions which do not involve belief in a god. Atheists and non-theists informed the Special Rapporteur that the advancement of humanism is not in itself a charitable purpose, whereas the advancement of religion is. Consequently, humanist institutions have to justify their charitable status under some other purpose recognized as charitable under existing charity law or analogous to or within the spirit of purposes enumerated in section 2 (2) of the Charities Act 2006. Under the previous charities law there was a presumption that purposes for the advancement of religion are for the public benefit unless there is evidence to the contrary. The Charities Act 2006 requires all charities to prove that they benefit the public, thus putting all charitable purposes on the same footing. Following consultation from March to June 2007, the Charity Commission is currently developing guidance on the principles of public benefit and the operation of the public benefit requirement. Furthermore, it intends to start another consultation in 2008 on draft supplementary guidance on public benefit for charities for the advancement of religion. 8. Vulnerable situation of women and converts 54. As identified in many of the Special Rapporteur’s reports, women and converts seem to be in a vulnerable position worldwide. Also with regard to the situation in schools in the United Kingdom, the Special Rapporteur was informed that young Muslim girls have been targeted in certain neighbourhoods by leaflets with extreme religious positions, for example stating that girls should not attend school because school education was not important for them. Furthermore, social peer pressure has reportedly been exercised on the girls to wear specific religious symbols, both at school and when walking in the streets. 55. The Special Rapporteur has also received reports of informal matrimonial courts operating within the Muslim community based on sharia law, for example granting divorces under religious law. Although sharia councils are not legally recognized by the authorities in the United Kingdom, the Islamic divorce certificates are perceived to have some impact, for example in cases where a couple had an Islamic marriage only and did not have a civil registration. 56. Conversion usually poses a problem only from the perspective of the community that the individual wants to leave. The Special Rapporteur received allegations that Asian families who