Country visits

Visits represent a fundamental activity of the Special Rapporteur. Pursuant to report E/CN.4/2005/61, para. 14, the Special Rapporteur undertakes country visits to get an in-depth understanding of specific contexts and practices and to provide constructive feedback to the given country and report to the Council or the General Assembly. During country visits, the Special Rapporteur holds meetings with representatives of relevant State bodies, representatives of religious and belief communities present on the territory, associations of religious groups and other non-governmental organizations as well as persons who may be interested or affected by the mandate. The Special Rapporteur also undertakes field visits during these country missions in order to be completely acquainted with the surrounding circumstances.

The Special Rapporteur has also re-established the initial approach of sending follow-up letters after country visits in order to receive updated information about the implementation of recommendations at the national level (see A/HRC/13/40, para. 15). In this regard, the Special Rapporteur transmitted in November 2009 follow-up tables to the Governments of the eight countries which she had visited from 2005 to 2007. These tables contain the conclusions and recommendations from her mission report and follow-up information from relevant United Nations documents, including from the universal periodic review, special procedures and treaty bodies. A third column includes information provided by the State on the consideration given to these recommendations, the steps taken to implement them and any constraints which may prevent their implementation

To access the reports in all the official languages, please copy the relevant document code, click on “Categorized Search”, and paste it in the “Symbol Number” Field or alternatively search under "Documents"