Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly

 

Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance

  The General Assembly, Reaffirming its resolution 36/55 of 25 November 1981, in which it proclaimed the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, Recalling its resolution 37/187 of 18 December 1982 and subsequent resolutions, in which it made and reiterated requests to the Commission on Human Rights to consider what measures might be necessary to implement the Declaration, Encouraged by the efforts being made by the Commission on Human Rights and by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and their respective Special Rapporteurs to study relevant developments affecting the implementation of the Declaration, Emphasizing that non-governmental organizations and religious bodies and groups at every level have an important role to play in the promotion of tolerance and the protection of freedom of religion or belief and inviting them to consider, in particular, what further role they could envisage playing regarding the dissemination of the text of the Declaration in national and local languages, Aware that intolerance and discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief continue to exist in many parts of the world, Believing that further efforts are therefore required to promote and protect the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief,

1. Reaffirms that freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief is a right guaranteed to all without discrimination;

2. Urges States, therefore, in accordance with their respective constitutional systems and with such internationally accepted instruments as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to provide, where they have not already done so, adequate constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief;

3. Notes with appreciation that work has already been begun in the Commission on Human Rights on the preparation of a compendium of the national legislation and regulations of States on the question of freedom of religion or belief;

4. Pledges its determination to encourage understanding, tolerance and respect in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief and recalls that a seminar on this theme was held at Geneva from 3 to 14 December 1984 within the framework of the programme of advisory services in the field of human rights;

5. Requests the Commission on Human Rights to urge the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities to accord high priority at its thirty-ninth session to consideration of the study prepared by its Special Rapporteur, in accordance with the terms of Sub-Commission resolution 1983/31 of 6 September 1983, on the current dimensions of the problems of intolerance and of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, and to report on this matter to the Commission at its forty-fourth session;

6. Takes note of Commission on Human Rights resolution 1986/20 of 10 March 1986 and Economic and Social Council decision 1986/134 of 23 May 1986, pursuant to which a Special Rapporteur has been appointed for one year to examine incidents and governmental actions in all parts of the world that are inconsistent with the provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief and to recommend remedial measures, as appropriate;

7. Urges all States to take all appropriate measures to combat intolerance and to encourage understanding, tolerance and respect in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief and, in this context, to examine where necessary the supervision and training of their civil servants, educators and other public officials to ensure that, in the course of their official duties, they respect different religions and beliefs and do not discriminate against persons professing other religions or beliefs;

8. Invites the United Nations University and other academic and research institutions to undertake programmes and studies on the encouragement of understanding, tolerance and respect in matters relating to freedom of religion or belief;

9. Invites the Secretary-General to continue to give high priority to the dissemination of the text of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, in all official languages of the United Nations, and to take all appropriate measures to make the text available for use by United Nations information centres, as well as by other interested bodies;

10. Requests the Commission on Human Rights to continue its consideration of measures to implement the Declaration and to report, through the Economic and Social Council, to the General Assembly at its forty-second session;

11. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-second session the item entitled "Elimination of all forms of religious intolerance" and to consider the report of the Commission on Human Rights under that item.