A/HRC/13/40/Add.4 foreign policy, laws and regulations and should be approved by the Central Committee of the Lao Front for National Construction. The latter’s approval is also required for the participation of religious leaders or individual believers in friendship visits and religious festivals abroad (article 18 of the Decree) or for the invitation of foreign religious representatives for such meetings in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (article 19 of the Decree). Similarly, religious organizations and individuals intending to request or accept any assistance from foreign religious agencies, believers or from international organizations have to seek approval according to article 20 of the Decree from the Central Committee of the Lao Front for National Construction. C. Further domestic sources of law 18. Article 3 of the Education Act stipulates that Lao citizens have the right to education without distinction as to ethnic origin, race, religion, sex, age or social status. Pursuant to article 23 of the Education Act, the State provides a scheme to support pupils and students from ethnic minorities in remote and isolated regions, disadvantaged female students, excellent students and good students from poor families. 19. Furthermore, customary practices remain an important source of law for many people in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, especially among the members of the 49 ethnic groups and in the most remote areas of the country. Consequently, the lives of many citizens are regulated by informal traditional local rules rather than by official statutory laws and regulations endorsed and published by the State. IV. Religious demography 20. With regard to the religious demography of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Special Rapporteur was informed by the Government that about two thirds of the population are Theravada Buddhists, most belonging to the Lao Loum group (lowlanders). In addition, about 30 per cent of the population are practitioners of animism or ancestor worship, mainly among the ethnic groups of Lao Soung (highlanders/minority tribes) and Lao Theung (mid-slope dwellers). Also among lowlanders, many pre-Buddhist animistic beliefs have been incorporated into Buddhist practice. 21. Christians constitute around 2 per cent of the population and many are also members of ethnic minorities in remote areas. The Government officially recognizes the Lao Evangelical Church (with an estimated 100,000 believers), the Roman Catholic Church (with around 40,000 believers) and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (with around 2,000 believers). Further Christian denominations are active in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, including from the Assemblies of God, the Baptist Church, the Church of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church. 22. In addition, there are further religious minorities in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, constituting altogether less than 1 per cent of the population. These include around 8,000 Bahá’í adherents, who are active in five Bahá’í centres across the country. The majority of the 400 Muslims in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic reside in Vientiane, where there are two Sunni mosques. Furthermore, a very small number of citizens follow no religion. 8 GE.10-10542