A/HRC/10/8/Add.2 page 11 (b) International legal standards 31. With regard to international human rights law, the State must guarantee, inter alia, freedom of religion or belief as well as liberty of movement and must respect the principle of nondiscrimination. The importance of the freedom of religion or belief is underlined by article 4 (2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which stipulates that, even in time of public emergency or war, no derogation from article 18 of the Covenant is permissible.10 Furthermore, freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. This list of permissible limitation grounds does not include the protection of “national security”, unlike for example in articles 12 (3), 19 (3) or 21 of the Covenant. A comparison with the text of these articles also reveals that article 18 (3) does not allow restrictions on freedom of religion or belief “for all of the reasons stemming from the concept of ordre public under French civil law but rather only to avoid disturbances to public order in the narrow sense”.11 Furthermore, laws imposing limitations on the freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief should not be arbitrary or unreasonable and any assessment as to the necessity of a limitation should be made on objective considerations. In addition, the burden of justifying a limitation upon a right guaranteed under the Covenant lies with the State. Consequently, it seems difficult to argue that the practice of imposing age limits for access to some religious places on specific occasions would pass these tests. 32. While the right to liberty of movement according to article 12 of Covenant may be subject to restrictions which are provided by law and are necessary to protect, for example, national security, such restrictions must also be consistent with the other rights recognized in the Covenant. Consequently, freedom of religion or belief and the prohibition of discrimination may be decisive in the evaluation of whether a restriction on the liberty of movement is permissible or not.12 With regard to multiple forms of discrimination based on grounds such as religion, race or ethnic origin, the Special Rapporteur’s predecessor has already emphasized that the identity of many minorities, or even large groups of people, is defined by both racial and religious aspects and that many instances of discrimination are aggravated by the effects of multiple identities (A/CONF.189/PC.1/7, para. 6). The Human Rights Committee emphasized in its general comment No. 27 that it would be a clear violation of the Covenant if the liberty of movement was restricted by making distinctions of any kind, such as on the basis of race or religion. 10 The Human Rights Committee has addressed the issues of derogations and the state of emergency in Israel in its concluding observations (CCPR/CO/78/ISR, para. 12 and CCPR/C/79/Add.93, para. 11). 11 See Manfred Nowak, UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. CCPR Commentary, Kehl am Rhein (2nd edition, 2005), art. 18, para. 39. 12 Ibid., art. 12, para. 32.