Overview:

• Recognition and registration are amalgamated rather than ideally differentiated; there is a focus on the latter as legal registration but few to no procedures for existential recognition; legal registration corresponds to registration of a group as an association.

• Discrimination between “foreign” and indigenous religious beliefs should not be allowed.

• Informational requirements seem appropriate but require continued monitoring to ensure they are not inappropriately extended.

• No tax-exempt status or other financial or legal benefits for religious groups exist.

• The existence of the rule of mandatory registration, even though are no penalties for not registering, violates the Bielefeldt provision.

Positive elements:

• Freedom of religion or belief is generally upheld by the government although this is undermined by Islamist activities among the population, especially in rural regions.

Recommendations:

• Establish a recognition system that possesses provisions for both existential recognition and legal registration for all belief systems and at multiple levels of activity.

• To become dynamic, the Malian government would need to establish a recognition agency to manage the aforementioned recognition system but should relinquish its control of such an agency upon its establishment in order to ensure the agency’s independence from government.