A/60/399 the authorities have responded to these concerns by enacting legislation that prohibits or limits the right to propagate a religion, which includes missionary activities and other actions aimed at persuading others to adopt a new religion, or making the right to change religion subject to certain conditions, for example making a formal declaration of conversion to a designated authority. 56. In May 2005, the Special Rapporteur travelled to Sri Lanka where she had the opportunity to investigate in this situ type of question. In Sri Lanka, numerous persons told the Special Rapporteur that missionaries, religious groups and humanitarian organizations, often from foreign countries, used material or other incentives to convert people or to induce them to convert. In response to this situation, a number of initiatives had been made to enact special legislation to prohibit religious conversions or criminalize allegedly “unethical” conversions. Many of these initiatives were started well before the tragedy of the tsunami. The report of the Special Rapporteur on her visit to Sri Lanka, which contains conclusions and recommendations with respect to the question of “unethical” conversions, will be submitted to the Commission at its sixty-second session. The following observations are therefore of a general nature and should by no means be taken as pertaining exclusively to the situation prevailing in Sri Lanka. 57. The Special Rapporteur considers that these situations raise questions both with regard to the right to freedom of religion of those who take the decision to convert (freedom of conscience and the right to change one’s religion) and the right to freedom of religion of persons who perform acts leading to the conversion of others (missionary activities and the propagation of one’s religion). These are taken separately below. (a) Freedom of conscience and the right to change one’s religion 58. In this respect, the Special Rapporteur would mainly refer to the arguments made earlier in this report. The right to change religion is absolute and is not subject to any limitation whatsoever. Any legislation that would prohibit or limit the right to change one’s religion would be contrary to international human rights standards and the provisions mentioned above. (b) Missionary activities and propagation of one’s religion 59. Article 1 of the 1981 Declaration and article 18, paragraph 1, of ICCPR explicitly provide for the right “in public or private, to manifest [one’s] religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching” (emphasis added). Many human rights instruments stipulate and the Human Rights Committee hold that the right to manifest one’s religion includes carrying out actions to persuade others to believe in a certain religion. For example, article 6 (d) of the 1981 Declaration states that the practice of the freedom of religion includes the freedom, “to write, issue and disseminate relevant publications….” Similarly, in resolution 2005/40 of the Commission on Human Rights urged States “[t]o ensure, in particular, … the right of all persons to write, issue and disseminate relevant publications .” In its general comment No. 22 (1993) the Human Rights Committee holds that “the practice and teaching of religion or belief includes acts integral to the conduct by religious groups of their basic affairs, … [and] the freedom to prepare and distribute religious texts or publications” (para. 4). This thinking is reflected in the above-mentioned decision Kang v. Republic of Korea, where the distribution of communist leaflets 17