PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS – A Practical Guide to Developing Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Legislation (g) States have to provide effective legal remedies for individuals or groups complaining about the denial or arbitrary delay of registration as a legal personality; (h) States should refrain from arbitrarily stripping certain religious or belief communities of legal status positions they had possessed before as an instrument of exercising control or marginalizing groups deemed not to fit into the cultural make-up of the country; (i) When offering a privileged legal status position for certain religious or belief communities or other groups, such a specific status should be accorded in strict conformity with the principle of non-discrimination and should fully respect the right to freedom of religion or belief of all human beings; (j) Any specific status positions given by the State to certain religious or belief communities or other groups should never be instrumentalized for purposes of national identity politics, as this may have detrimental effects on the situation of individuals from minority communities.974 The Human Rights Committee has deemed the denial of registration of particular religious communities to be discriminatory, in particular in situations in which there is a pattern and practice of allowing the registration of other types of religious community975 and has found States parties in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a result of arbitrary or discriminatory refusal to recognize or register religious communities.976 It has also deemed denial of the establishment of entities of a given religion unlawful and found States parties in violation of the Covenant for maintaining systems that preclude the opportunity to challenge decisions denying community registration.977 The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has noted that, in addition to explicit refusals to recognize certain religious communities, there may also be indirect discriminatory criteria obstructing community establishment and recognition, such as requirements related to citizenship or having a certain number of members, lengthy waiting periods or criteria requiring full-time clergy,978 which will disproportionately affect minority groups. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has acknowledged that the prohibition of certain religious groups infringes the right to freedom of religion, as illustrated by the ban introduced by the Government of Argentina against Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1976.979 The Commission has identified discriminatory practices against Jehovah’s Witnesses in several States, such as Paraguay, where the Government forcibly dissolved their legal personality in 1979.980 The Commission has also noted that States have an obligation to enforce policies designed to control groups that commit discriminatory acts, promote religious hatred, carry out acts of religious persecution or obstruct the exercise of religious rights.981 The European Court of Human Rights has deemed that the unequal treatment of different religious or faith communities violates the European Convention on Human Rights.982 In the jurisprudence of the Court, “States have responsibility for ensuring, neutrally and impartially, the exercise of various religions, faiths and beliefs”,983 the role of the State being “to safeguard the possibility of pluralism”.984 The Court has found States parties in violation of the provisions of the Convention in cases of arbitrary or discriminatory refusal 142 974 A/HRC/19/60, para. 73. 975 See, for instance, Human Rights Committee, Sister Immaculate Joseph and 80 Teaching Sisters of the Holy Cross of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Menzingen of Sri Lanka v. Sri Lanka (CCPR/C/85/D/1249/2004), para. 7.4. 976 See, for example, Human Rights Committee, Malakhovsky and Pikul v. Belarus (CCPR/C/84/D/1207/2003). 977 Human Rights Committee, Sister Immaculate Joseph and 80 Teaching Sisters of the Holy Cross of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Menzingen of Sri Lanka v. Sri Lanka (CCPR/C/85/D/1249/2004). 978 See, for example, A/HRC/19/60/Add.2. 979 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Jehovah’s Witnesses v. Argentina, Case 2137, Resolution, 18 November 1978. 980 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: 1979–1980 (1980), chap. V, sect. B, para. 10. 981 Ibid., chap. V, sect. D, para. 4; and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights 2008 (2009), chap. VI, paras. 364–367. 982 European Court of Human Rights, Religionsgemeinschaft der Zeugen Jehovas and others v. Austria, Application No. 40825/98, Judgment, 31 July 2008. 983 European Court of Human Rights, Lautsi and others v. Italy, Application No. 30814/06, Judgment, 18 March 2011, para. 60. 984 Ibid., para. 62.