were Muslims, 12.1 per cent were Hindus, 0.6 per cent were Buddhists and 0.3 per cent were Christians, mainly Roman Catholics. Except for the approximately half a million people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, they were homogeneous. The Government had established trust funds for each of the four religious denominations, allocating.10 million rupees to each group to restore and renovate religious buildings. The four main religious communities regulated such aspects of their lives as marriage, inheritance and succession according to their own religious laws. Such laws were the customary, or personal laws, referred to in the report and they were applied by the courts in the same way as civil laws. Finland 87. The ninth and tenth periodic reports of Finland (CERD/C/159/Add.l and CERD/C/185/Add.l, respectively) were considered by the Committee at its 866th and 867th meetings, held on 8 August 1990 (CERD/C/SR.866 and SR.667). 88. The periodic reports were introduced by the representative of the State party, who pointed out that, like the previous reports, the tenth report dealt essentially with the measures taken by the Government of Finland to improve the living -26- (or I I Conditions of the country's two ethnic minorities - the Samis and the Romanies i Gypsies). He informed the Committee of developments since the tenth periodic i report had been prepared, and stated in particular that in May 1990 Finland had ; ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the Nordic Sami Council 1 had recently been granted consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. 89. With regard to article 2 of the Convention, he said the Committee set up to consider amendments to the electoral law had proposed that a new provision should be added to the Constitution under which Parliamentary committees would be required to hear Sami representatives whenever they considered bills relating to the rights 
**Analysis**
The text primarily discusses the religious demographics and laws of a country, as well as the government's efforts to improve the living conditions of its ethnic minorities. While it does not directly relate to economic or industrial development, it touches on international relations and human rights.

**Category**
Culture, Humanitarian aid and relief