Nazila Ghanea is United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

Making Freedom of Religion or Belief a Lived Reality: Threats and Opportunities

Pilgrims at a festival at Lalish in Dohuk Governorate, Kurdistan region of Iraq, on the day of the Yazidi New Year, 18 April 2017.  Levi Clancy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ms. Nazila Ghanea, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief. Photo: OHCHR

Direct violence against marginalized religious or belief communities often goes hand in hand with, and is facilitated by, legally mandated discrimination at the national level and/or unchecked and widespread prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes.