E/CN.4/1998/6 page 27 Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Those Committees have in the past studied (see, inter alia, “Study Series 2: Elimination of all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief”, Study by the Special Rapporteur, Ms. Odio Benito), and continue to study, questions relating to intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief in the course of their treaty-monitoring activities. A specific example is the Human Rights Committee's general comment 22 of 20 July 1993 on article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Exchanges of information and expertise between the Special Rapporteur and these committees would be highly useful and help to improve the effectiveness of the mandate on freedom of religion and belief. 110. The Special Rapporteur also recommends a number of initiatives on sensitive priority issues, such as communications and in situ visits, and relating to (a) the interdependence of human rights, (b) religious extremism, (c) “sects” and “new religious movements”, and (d) women. He believes that his mandate could, provided that adequate resources were mobilized, give the necessary impetus to the protection and promotion of human rights. 111. Regarding the question of the interdependence of human rights, the Special Rapporteur wishes to point out that the implementation of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief is inseparable from the general question of the observance of human rights as a whole. In the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the World Conference on Human Rights emphasized that democracy, development and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms are interdependent and mutually reinforcing, and that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. The Special Rapporteur is also of the view that particularism should not be used to justify refusal or evasion, any more than universalism should be a pretext or excuse for establishing other particularisms or covering contingent concerns. 112. Action to promote religious freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination is therefore still closely linked to action to promote democracy and development. Extreme poverty in particular can render all rights and freedoms illusory and encourage extremism and violence. Human rights are therefore not dissoluble, do not lend themselves to selectivity and call for a minimum of solidarity. 113. In accordance with this conception, and for a better understanding of complex situations involving freedom of religion and belief, the Special Rapporteur recommends that he should be provided with the necessary resources to undertake a study on “proselytism, freedom of religion and poverty”. 114. Religious extremism can produce situations which are difficult to control and can imperil the human right to peace. Such religious extremism, whether or not it has a genuinely religious basis, is apparent or latent, or adopts, provokes or sustains violence or manifests itself in less spectacular forms of intolerance, constitutes an assault on both freedom and religion. Such extremism is not limited to any society or religion. Preservation of the right to peace should encourage greater efforts towards international solidarity in order to stifle religious extremism - from whatever quarter it