A/HRC/52/38 comment No. 22 (1993) dates back 30 years yet contains some significant and pertinent analysis that has stood the test of time. The breadth of the Human Rights Committee’s mandate, including monitoring implementation of articles 2, 5, 18, 19 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, gives it a particular responsibility in terms of jurisprudence. None of the other human rights treaty bodies have issued general comments or general recommendations on freedom of religion or belief.32 C. Fields of operation 42. At the international level, the responsibilities under the mandate with respect to the three dimensions of freedom of religion or belief are set against a far broader backdrop of activities. Such activities include interfaith and interreligious dialogues and religious engagement, i.e. outreach to religious leaders, actors and communities, with a view in particular to promoting religious tolerance, coexistence or understanding. It is a much busier sphere than even just a decade ago; one example is the “accelerated opening up towards religious actors” in all sectors related to the work of the United Nations.33 While each activity has its own rationale and merit, these arenas should not be conflated or confused with one another. 43. One of the first global efforts to develop comprehensive interfaith dialogue was the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in 1893 in Chicago, United States of America, which created a global platform for the engagement of religions of the East and West. Its mandate was to cultivate harmony among the world’s spiritual traditions and to foster their engagement with guiding institutions in order to achieve a more peaceful, just and sustainable world.34 The interfaith dialogue milieu is still active, with both long established dialogues35 and newer ones.36 44. Outreach to religious leaders, and through them to their respective communities, occurs in many fields of endeavour, from addressing hate speech and atrocity crimes 37 to environment 38 or human rights more broadly. 39 In many of these arenas, such outreach recognizes the long-established and substantial role that religious leaders and communities and other actors have played. 45. Religious and belief communities have different structures of leadership and representation. Human rights norms recognize that religions or belief institutions should have the freedom to manage their own basic affairs, including the freedom to choose their religious leaders, priests and teachers40 or other representation, in line with their practices, convictions and autonomy. 41 Self-definition is important, especially where there are intrareligious divergences of views about representation.42 46. Multilateral organizations and States often limit those that they invite as representatives of religious or belief communities in international forums, national consultations, dialogues and ceremonial occasions. While the need to keep numbers manageable is understandable, care needs to be taken so that discrimination does not influence the decisions about inclusion and exclusion. The Human Rights Committee has indicated that it views with concern any tendency to discriminate against any religion or 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 GE.23-00741 For example, article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ibrahim Salama and Michael Wiener, Reconciling Religion and Human Rights: Faith in Multilateralism (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022), pp. 61–62. See https://parliamentofreligions.org/history/about. See https://religions-congress.org/en/. See ibid. and https://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395303017614. See https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Plan%20of%20Action%20 Advanced%20Copy.pdf; and https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/ Fez%20anniversary_Outcome%20Document_FINAL_28December.pdf. See https://www.unep.org/about-un-environment/faith-earth-initiative. See https://www.oikoumene.org/sites/default/files/Document/faith_human_rights.pdf. Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 22 (1993), para. 4. See https://www.osce.org/odihr/139046, para. 31. Ibid., para. 2. 9