A/HRC/25/58 mainstream media and encouragement of interreligious and intrareligious dialogue initiatives, public awareness-raising campaigns and educational efforts in schools. It is worth noting that actors in the area of new information technologies can also play an important role through the promotion of religious tolerance in the digital space. Artists, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders can help to make a difference as well, especially when their statements and actions transcend religious boundaries and denounce religious intolerance.30 64. The Special Rapporteur would like to conclude by reiterating that freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression, as enshrined respectively in articles 18 and 19, respectively, of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are “neighbouring rights” in a literal as well as metaphorical sense.31 They are interdependent and mutually reinforcing and can serve as complementary safeguards of communicative freedom. This positive interrelation between freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression should guide policies designed to combat negative stereotypes, prejudice and other narrow-minded attitudes, which can best be tackled in an environment that enables more meaningful intergroup communication, communicative outreach activities and public discussion of any controversies. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 65. Manifestations of collective religious hatred, albeit sometimes leading to a seemingly unstoppable destructive dynamic, are not natural phenomena; they are caused by human action and/or omission. States and other stakeholders therefore have a shared responsibility to combat collective religious hatred, which presupposes an understanding of its root causes and of any aggravating political circumstances. 66. Sentiments of collective religious hatred are often caused by a combination of fear and contempt, which can trigger a vicious circle of mistrust, narrow-mindedness, collective hysteria, contempt-filled rumours and fear of imaginary conspiracies. Aggravating political factors that further increase the likelihood of manifestations of collective religious hatred include: (a) endemic corruption, which typically undermines reasonable trust in public institutions, thus creating inward-looking mentalities and possibly breeding collective narrow-mindedness; (b) an authoritarian political atmosphere that stifles free and frank public debate, creates a “mentality of suspicion” and undermines trust between individuals and groups; and (c) the harnessing of religion for the purposes of national identity politics, which typically leads to the political marginalization of religious minorities whose members may become easy scapegoats or subjects of prejudice and misperception. 67. Policies intended to counter manifestations of religious hatred must invest in trust-building based on universal respect. By ensuring respect for all human beings as holders of profound, identity-shaping convictions, freedom of religion or belief plays a pivotal role in such anti-hatred policies, both in the area of trust-building through public institutions as well as in the area of trust-building through communication. 30 31 18 Ibid., para. 62. Articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights fit into a pattern also widely found elsewhere, including in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (arts. 9 and 10), the American Convention on Human Rights (arts. 12 and 13), the African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights (arts. 8 and 9), and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (arts. 10 and 11), as well as in numerous national constitutions.