This updated publication contains the Committee of Ministers’ guidelines to member States on the protection and promotion of human rights in culturally diverse societies as well as the Compilation of Council of Europe standards relating to the principles of freedom of thought, conscience and religion and links to other human rights upon which the Guidelines are inspired. These standards are based mainly on the European Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, but also on conclusions and recommendations of other monitoring mechanisms and other Council of Europe bodies.

The Guidelines are innovative as they do not consider these standards in isolation, rather they rethink and recast them through their interaction with other human rights: freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, the right to private life. They are intended as a realistic and usable tool which reflects the often complex interplay of different rights within diverse societies.