E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1 page 4 5. The Special Rapporteur is unfortunately obliged to draw attention here to the fact that for the first time since he was appointed and embarked on a series of missions (China, Pakistan, Iran, India, Sudan, Greece, Australia, Germany), he came up against a series of obstacles the aim of which was to get his mission put off; he was also the object of various attempts to interfere and take control of his programme and of the activities of the organizations and persons assisting him. What is unacceptable is that these hindrances were the work of international officials of the United Nations, acting, it seems, either on their own initiative or in defence of State interests or certain lobbies. On the subject of these hindrances, a representative of the Permanent Mission of the United States of America to the United Nations Office at Geneva was at pains to tell the Special Rapporteur orally that the United States Government was not in any way responsible for the obstacles and hindrances. The Special Rapporteur greatly hopes that such attempts to undermine the independence of special rapporteurs will not be left without follow-up, particularly within the United Nations, and will not be repeated in the future. 6. As a result of his visit, the Special Rapporteur has been able to draw up a report on the legal situation in the field of religion or belief and a report on tolerance and non-discrimination based on religion or conviction. I. LEGAL SITUATION IN THE FIELD OF RELIGION OR BELIEF 7. The principal legal texts concerning freedom of religion or belief are, on the one hand, article VI of the Constitution - “... no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States” - and, on the other hand, the First Amendment to the Constitution - “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ....” The two clauses of the First Amendment - free exercise of religion and “non-establishment” of religion - apply equally to the actions of state and local governments since the Supreme Court has ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment's dictum that no state may deprive any person of liberty without due process of law makes the First Amendment applicable to the states. At the federal level, there is no single law on freedom of religion or belief but a collection of laws (“federal statutes”) dealing directly or indirectly with certain aspects of freedom of religion or belief and certain attacks and violations on the part of the State and private individuals and which provide legal protection essentially by the availability of remedies. The Supreme Court, which is the ultimate arbiter of the way in which the American system balances the conflicting rights of its citizens and the Government, has been a major contributor in the construction of the legal framework relating to freedom of religion and belief. 8. The Supreme Court has not tried to define religion itself or to answer the delicate question of what constitutes a religious belief to be legally protected; it has, however, considered that some beliefs may be “so bizarre, so clearly non-religious in motivation, as not to be entitled to protection under the free exercise clause” (Thomas v. Review Board, Indiana Employment Security Div., 450 US 707, 715 (1981)). In identifying such “non-religious beliefs”, the Court has focused on the credibility and sincerity of an individual's beliefs rather than on the orthodoxy or popularity of a particular faith. The Court has held that a state could not make membership