E/CN.4/1987/35
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such as ill-treatment and humiliation at school, expulsion from school or a
ban on embarking on higher education, pressure to deny their faith, and even
in certain extreme cases imprisonment, torture and summary execution.
71. The tacit or explicit encouragement of the authorities of certain
countries to denigrate the values and ideas embraced by certain religions or
beliefs has already been mentioned. It is obvious that such conduct is hardly
compatible with the provisions of article 5, paragraph 3, of the Declaration
concerning education based on understanding, tolerance and respect for freedom
of religion or belief of others.
C.
Religious intolerance and other infringements of human rights
1.
Infringements of the right to life, physical
integrity, liberty and security of person
72. The right to life, a fundamental right from which all other human rights
flow, is of primary importance and is proclaimed in all international
instruments relating to human rights.
73. The right to physical integrity entails prohibition of the use of torture
and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Like the right to life, the
prohibition of torture is one of the rights universally recognized as forming
part of jus cogens and entailing, on the part of States, obligations
erga omnes towards the international community as a whole.
74. Similarly, the right to liberty as defined in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights and the international instruments relating to human rights, in
particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, entails
the prohibition of arbitrary arrest and detention, and respect for a certain
number of standards and guarantees assuring the equitable and effective
administration of justice.
75. As is clear from the information submitted to the Special Rapporteur and
the brief analysis of that information contained in the preceding chapter, the
right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as defined, in its
various implications, in the text of the Declaration on the Elimination of All
Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief is
often deliberately ignored or, at the least, made subject to restrictions that
are hardly justified by the requirements mentioned in article 1, paragraph 3,
of the Declaration, i.e. the protection of public safety, order, health or
morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. Thes^ infringements
of freedom of thought, conscience and religion often entail serious
consequences for the enjoyment of other fundamental rights such1 as those
mentioned above.
76. In extreme cases, religious intolerance leads to the denial of the' right
to life. Infringements of this fundamental right may take various forms.77. At times, the occurrence of armed conflicts caused, inter alia, by
religious factors leads, in some cases to heavy loss of life. In a currents
international conflict between two neighbouring countries, in which the
number of casualties is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands,
religious dissensions are contributing to hold up any peaceful solution.