A/HRC/37/49/Add.2 Rapporteur learned that a registered community is not guaranteed to remain registered, even if it fully complies with the law. That means that, registered or not, religious communities do not feel secure to freely and fully exercise their right to freedom of religion or belief. 31. Under international law, the right to manifest one’s faith in public or in private and alone or in community with others is an inherent and inalienable right that is not contingent upon specific State approval or administrative registration. Based on this understanding, registration should be an optional offer by the State to facilitate the operational functions of a religious community but not a mandatory legal requirement to practise or manifest one’s religion or belief. In this context, the situation of non-registered religious communities is a litmus test of the normative status of freedom of religion or belief in a country. B. Proselytism and missionary activities 32. Article 5 of the 1998 Law bans actions aimed at converting believers of one confession to another (proselytism) and any other missionary activity. The authorities explained to the Special Rapporteur that the law does not forbid voluntary conversion of any individual. However, the Government considers the ban on proselytism and other missionary activities necessary to maintain harmony and accord among religious confessions and to protect any claims of religious supremacy or “unethical conversion” through material enticement, which may lead to other social tensions. The Committee for Religious Affairs indicated that all efforts to share or preach one’s religion or belief to others outside registered religious premises were prohibited. 33. Article 240, part 2 of the Code of Administrative Offences punishes proselytism and other missionary activities with fines of between 50 and 100 times the minimum monthly wage or imprisonment of up to 15 days. In addition, the same offence may be sanctioned under article 216 (2), part 2, of the Criminal Code with a fine from 50 to 100 minimum monthly wages or arrest and detention of up to six months or imprisonment for up to three years. 34. Members of religious groups that are known for proselytism normally face greater social scrutiny and their neighbours are also more suspicious of their activities. Statecontrolled and State-influenced media have reportedly accused missionaries of sowing civil discord and called upon all citizens to carry out their “duties” in preventing such groups from destabilizing or endangering their society. Due to the suspicion and prejudice against those who proselytize or conduct missionary activities, the Mahalla and the Committee for Religious Affairs are less inclined to give their written approval for the registration of those religious groups in order to avoid possible tensions in the neighbourhoods. Sensitivity in relation to attempts to convert people from one religion to another appeared varied from a region to another, depending on the local history and context. In general, all types of public manifestations of one’s faith risked being viewed as “missionary activities”. 35. Officials and other interlocutors acknowledged that voluntary conversion was permitted by law and socially accepted in general. However, it was noted that conversion of an atheist was socially more acceptable than conversion of a person identified with the Muslim community. The Special Rapporteur heard reports about harassment and discrimination faced by Muslim converts to Christianity, particularly from neighbourhood officials, family members and employers. Those persons might experience problems in registering births, deaths and marriages at the local offices, where officials are predominantly Muslim. There was allegedly immense pressure on converts not to go through the baptism rite. Some reported that, as burial grounds are assigned to registered faith communities, the next-of-kin and the religious leaders may raise issues regarding carrying out funeral services in accordance with the rites of the religion to which the deceased may have converted. Others, however, reported that there was collaboration and accommodation among the different faith communities and family members in relation to performing the burial rites of those who had converted. 36. Under international human rights law, the freedom of religion or belief unequivocally includes the right to bear witness to one’s convictions, to communicate within and across religious or denominational boundaries and to try to persuade others in a 7