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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports. Scroll to: ---------- A/HRC/10/8/Add.4 Visit undertaken from 4 to 10 September 2008. Education: The Law of Turkmenistan on freedom of conscience and religious organizations (“Religious Organizations Law”), adopted on 21 October 2003, spells out the foregoing constitutional provisions in more detail. It replaces the 1991 Law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations and its subsequent amendments in 1995 and 1996. Article 2 recognizes that in case an international treaty to which Turkmenistan is a signatory party sets rules which are different from those contemplated in this Law, the rules of the international treaty shall apply. Religious education is governed by articles 6 and 9. Accordingly, children may be provided religious education at mosques for no longer than four hours a week upon approval of the Council on Religious Affairs and of the parents. Furthermore, providing religious education in private is prohibited. Article 9 also indicates that citizens of Turkmenistan may receive religious education at a specific faculty in the Magtymguly Turkmen State University. Article 11 prohibits the activity of unregistered religious organizations and defines the registration procedure through the Council on Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. (Paragraph 4). The Special Rapporteur expresses concern about the State’s interference in religious affairs of the different belief communities in Turkmenistan. She would like to recall that according to article 6 of the 1981 Declaration, the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief shall include, inter alia, the freedom to train, appoint, elect or designate by succession appropriate leaders called for by the requirements and standards of any religion or belief and the freedom to teach a religion or belief in places suitable for these purposes. She also would like to refer to the Human Rights Committee’s general comment No. 22 (1993), in which it stated that “the practice and teaching of a religion or belief includes acts integral to the conduct by religious groups of their basic affairs, such as the freedom to choose their religious leaders priests and teachers, the freedom to establish seminaries or religious schools and the freedom to prepare and distribute religious texts or publications.” (Paragraph 47). ----------
Please note that the language may have been edited in places for the purpose of clarity
Report by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief