E/CN.4/2004/63 page 29 Consultative Conference on School Education in relation to Freedom of Religion or Belief, Tolerance and Non-Discrimination. The Special Rapporteur has also benefited from substantial cooperation from the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations information centres in preparing and conducting his in situ visits. C. Cooperation with non-governmental organizations 145. The Special Rapporteur wishes to stress the essential role of the non-governmental organizations which have made an invaluable contribution to the mandate on freedom of religion or belief, both as regards management and prevention. IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 146. At the conclusion of his activities pursuant to the mandate on freedom of religion or belief, the Special Rapporteur would like to draw up a balance of the activities undertaken since 1993. In the course of these 11 years the Special Rapporteur has witnessed a number of developments which lead him to make qualified observations. 147. Where freedom of religion or belief in general is concerned, although a progressive decline is apparent in anti-religious policies or policies for the total control of religious matters by States in the name of political ideology, it must also be acknowledged that non-State entities have also played a more important role in recent years, often in terms of failure to respect freedom of religion or belief. Setting aside the very numerous instances of religious intolerance to be found everywhere in present-day society, the phenomenon of religious - or what passes for religious - extremism has recently taken on a new lease of life after noticeably declining at the end of the 1990s. 148. In this context it should be stressed once again that extremism cannot be blamed on any one religion. The Special Rapporteur’s activities have clearly shown that it is a rare religion that can boast that no extremism has a foothold in its ranks. The majority of religions have been and still are claimed as their authority by individuals or groups who disseminate messages of intolerance vis-à-vis other religions and who are frequently guilty of acts of serious violence against those who not belong to their camp. The Special Rapporteur emphasized in the conclusions of his last mid-term report to the General Assembly (A/58/296) that, in many cases, States have not met their human rights obligations as regards freedom of religion. These are not limited to the negative obligation to refrain from violating the right to freedom of religion of belief; they also include the positive obligation to protect persons under their jurisdiction from violations of their rights, including those committed by non-State actors or entities. These measures should not only consist in prosecuting the perpetrators of such facts and providing compensation to the victims, but also in specific preventive action to reduce such acts in future and destroy the evil at the root. 149. In the same order of ideas, the Special Rapporteur draws special attention to the fact that, despite the efforts made, women continue to be the main victims of violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief, and he encourages States to take firm and decisive measures in this regard.