A/HRC/37/49/Add.2 93. The Special Rapporteur recalls President Mirziyoyev’s proposal to the General Assembly to adopt a special resolution on enlightenment and religious tolerance, with the goal of promoting universal access to education, elimination of illiteracy and ignorance. He welcomes the President’s announcement to establish the Imam Al-Bukhari International Research Centre in Samarkand and the Centre for Islamic Civilization in Tashkent. 94. Given the importance of deep religious knowledge and understanding for overcoming negative stereotypes and for living together peacefully in a religiously pluralistic society, programmes of religious information should go beyond education in schools and extend to the general population as well. The Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools4 include criteria that could be used to design programmes to enhance religious literacy beyond public schools. Spreading knowledge and fostering a deeper understanding of religions could help people to build resilience against simplistic “truth claims” and radical slogans. The Special Rapporteur hopes that both of the centres announced by the President will pioneer the promotion of literacy with regard to religions and freedom of religion or belief, especially among Islamic countries, and set a good example to the Central Asian region. 95. The Special Rapporteur stresses that the transition from the “toleration” model to the human rights model with regard to religion or belief cannot be achieved if there is no positive recognition of other rights that are closely linked to religion or belief, such as freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the right to privacy. Therefore, that shift will require a holistic approach to human rights in legislation and policies. VIII. Conclusions and recommendations 96. The citizens of Uzbekistan lived through State-imposed atheism during the Soviet era when religions and religious practices were heavily curtailed. Since its declaration of independence in 1991, religions have re-emerged in the social life of the population, with Islam as the religion of the majority and 15 other religious confessions living together peacefully. Many citizens continue to follow a primarily secular path, adopting the Muslim appellation and identity without the corresponding religious practice. Secularism is upheld in the Constitution but its application attenuates freedom of religion or belief and does not accommodate multiple manifestations of religions or beliefs. Believers have to carefully navigate the boundaries for practising their religions or beliefs or they risk being accused of stirring religious intolerance or, worse, identified with spreading extremism. 97. Freedom of religion or belief is guaranteed by the Constitution but is subject to limitations and further regulated by the Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, the Criminal Code and the Code of Administrative Offences. Those laws criminalize unregistered religious activity, require official approval of the content, production and distribution of religious materials and prohibit proselytism and other missionary activities, which is incompatible with article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The State bans all religious education that has not been sanctioned by it and parents are deprived of their right to educate their children according to their convictions. Religious pilgrimage is highly regulated. 98. (Religious) extremism or radicalization is seen by many as the main challenge for the country, but the concept of extremism is vaguely defined. Undue State control of religions, strict regulation of religious activities and State-imposed “preventive measures” are often justified as necessary to combat “extremism” and protect public security. This has resulted in excessive surveillance of religious activities or practices. The success of these measures, which are deemed necessary by the authorities, is often belied by their human rights cost. Several thousands of people have been imprisoned for up to 20 years on vague charges of “terrorism”, “religious extremism”, “anti4 The guiding principles were drafted in 2007 by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Advisory Council of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. Available at www.osce.org/odihr/29154?download=true. 17