A/HRC/7/10/Add.2 page 5 4. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the authorities for their invitation and full cooperation. Her visit was the second official mission carried out by a special procedures mandate-holder to Tajikistan since the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers undertook a country visit in September 2005. The Special Rapporteur sincerely appreciates the outstanding logistical support of the United Nations Tajikistan Office of Peacebuilding provided to her before, during and after the mission. Furthermore, she is grateful that OSCE offered its field office in Khujand for meetings. Finally, she would like to express her gratitude for the information she received from international civil society groups and individual academics. II. POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT 5. Under Soviet auspices, Tajikistan became an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924. Five years later, it gained the status of a full Soviet Socialist Republic, including the additional territory of Leninabad (now Sughd Region). Subsequent to the failed coup in Moscow and declarations of independence by other Central Asian States, Tajikistan proclaimed itself an independent republic on 9 September 1991. 6. In 1992, civil war broke out in Tajikistan between opposing regional and ideological groups. It is estimated that the war claimed between 50,000 and 100,000 lives and forced almost 1 million people to flee their homes. From 1994 to 1997, the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan monitored the ceasefire agreement between the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition, a coalition of Islamic leaders and secular politicians. Under the auspices of the United Nations, the Government and the United Tajik Opposition concluded the General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord on 27 June 1997. 7. Following the signing of this general peace agreement, the Mission’s mandate was expanded to help monitor its implementation. The Mission accomplished its assigned tasks and its mandate was terminated on 15 May 2000. Subsequently, the United Nations Tajikistan Office of Peacebuilding was established. The Office has been devoting its activities to strengthening democratic institutions and capacities for conflict prevention, increasing respect for the rule of law at all levels and strengthening national mechanisms and building national capacities in human rights. 8. A national referendum in September 1999 approved a series of amendments to the Constitution of 6 November 1994, including the legalization of political parties based on religion. This permitted the religiously affiliated Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan to participate in elections and ultimately to be represented in the national legislature of the country. The most recent constitutional amendments were adopted on 22 June 2003, following a plebiscite on the basis of which 56 amendments to the Constitution were approved.