A/HRC/7/10/Add.2 page 4 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Asma Jahangir, carried out a mission to Tajikistan from 26 February to 1 March 2007, at the invitation of the Government. The visit was undertaken pursuant to her mandate to assess compliance with international standards on the right to freedom of religion or belief. Owing to an unfortunate emergency, she had to interrupt her visit in order to attend to a personal matter in her home country. For that reason, she was unable to travel as scheduled to Khujand and Isfara, although her team went there and received submissions from local authorities, individuals and organizations in the field. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Government for its understanding and constructive reaction to these circumstances. 2. In general, the Special Rapporteur was deeply impressed by the cooperation extended to her by the Government of Tajikistan. In Dushanbe, she met the Minister for Education and the Head of the Department of International Relations at the Ministry of Education, the Minister for Justice and the Deputy Minister for Justice, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Head of the Department of International Organizations, the State Counsellor of the President of the Tajik Republic on Social Development and Public Relations, the Deputy Interior Minister, the Prosecutor General, the Minister for Culture and the Deputy Minister for Culture and the Head of the Department of International Relations. Moreover, the Special Rapporteur is grateful that she was invited, at her request, by the Minister for Education to visit, on short notice, the City of Dushanbe Boarding School for Orphans No. 1. The Special Rapporteur also had consultations with the chairperson and several members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan. Furthermore, the team met with the Deputy Chairman of the Sughd Region and with the mayor of the city of Isfara. 3. The Special Rapporteur collected first-hand information and materials on the state of freedom of religion or belief in the country by, inter alia, meeting members of various religions. The interlocutors included religious leaders and members of Sunnite and Shia Ismaili Islam, the Jewish community, the Baptist Church, the Church of Christian Adventists, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Christian Evangelists, the Christian Humanitarian Mission “League of the Bible”, the Baha’i community, the Grace Sunmin Church, the Missionary Centre “Nadezhda”, the Vozrojdenie Church and the community God’s Love. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur met with lawyers and representatives of non-governmental organizations, such as the League of Women Lawyers, “Society and Law”, the Human Rights Centre, the Bureau of Human Rights, the Aga Khan Development Network and the Open Society Institute. The team met with representatives of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the United Nations Population Fund, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the delegation of the European Commission to Tajikistan, the University for Peace and foreign embassies in Tajikistan.