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[6 March 2012] - The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr. Heiner Bielefeldt, presented his annual report to the Human Rights Council today. CRIN extracted mentions of children's rights in the report, but found only one reference in relation to the establishment of denominational schools. Meanwhile in the interactive debate at the Council, NGOs and State delegations took their turn to comment on the Special Rapporteur's report and its recommendations. The issue of restrictions on religious freedom was raised by both NGOs and State delegations. One example was the trend in some countries of banning religious clothing in certain settings. There was scarce discussion, on the other hand, on the effects that such bans, such as those on Islamic headwear, have on girls in school. The Special Rapporteur did highlight, however, that women and girls from religious minorities suffer from multiple forms of discrimination – based on both their religion and their gender – so there is the need for a dual approach to addressing this issue to encapsulate both of these problems. Another example of restriction on religious freedom included difficulties in the registration of religions, owed to over-bureaucratic procedures, which one speaker said is often used to “limit the promulgation of beliefs and penalise those who profess the ‘wrong’ belief”. The Special Rapporteur commented that this is one of the most significant issues related to the State’s restriction of religion around the world. In reference to excessively strict countries, one NGO notably said: “There is no compulsion in religion. So it is deeply ironic that [in some countries] the penalty for apostasy is death.”