A/RES/63/181
United Nations
Distr.: General
16 March 2009
General Assembly
Sixty-third session
Agenda item 64 (b)
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 2008
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/63/430/Add.2)]
63/181. Elimination of all forms of intolerance and of
discrimination based on religion or belief
The General Assembly,
Recalling its resolution 36/55 of 25 November 1981, by which it proclaimed
the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief,
Recalling also article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, 1 article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2 and other relevant
human rights provisions,
0F
1F
Recalling further its previous resolutions on the elimination of all forms of
intolerance and of discrimination based on religion or belief, including resolution
62/157 of 18 December 2007, as well as Human Rights Council resolution 6/37 of
14 December 2007, 3 in which the Council, inter alia, extended the mandate of the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief,
2F
Reaffirming the recognition by the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights
that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated, and
its call upon all Governments to take all appropriate measures in compliance with
their international obligations and with due regard to their respective legal systems
to counter intolerance and related violence based on religion or belief, including
practices of discrimination against women and the desecration of religious sites,
recognizing that every individual has the right to freedom of thought, conscience,
expression and religion, 4
3F
Considering that religion or belief, for those who profess either, is one of the
fundamental elements in their conception of life and that freedom of religion or
belief should be fully respected and guaranteed,
_______________
1
See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.
Resolution 217 A (III).
3
See Official Records of the General Assembly, Sixty-third Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/63/53), chap. I,
sect. A.
4
See A/CONF.157/24 (Part I), chap. III.
2
08-48165