A/HRC/25/58/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. From 30 June to 5 July 2013, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief undertook a country visit to Sierra Leone. The general purpose of such country visits is to receive first-hand information concerning the situation of freedom of religion or belief in a particular country and to identify good practices as well as existing or emerging challenges to the enjoyment of this specific human right. 2. Above all, the Special Rapporteur would like to thank all those who contributed to making the visit possible and very fruitful. He expresses his profound gratitude to the Government of Sierra Leone for the cordial invitation transmitted through its Permanent Mission in Geneva. He is indebted to many interlocutors from all branches of the State, diverse religious communities as well as various civil society organizations. The State representatives with whom the Special Rapporteur communicated included the VicePresident, the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, the Minister of Education, Science and Technology, the Minister of Labour and Social Security, the Minister of Information and Communications, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, the Minister of Political and Public Affairs, the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Deputy Minister of Justice, other representatives of the Administration, Members of Parliament, the Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Committee, the Chief Justice and other high-ranking members of the judiciary, the Chair of the Human Rights Commission, the Chair of the Law Reform Commission, the Ombudsman and his team, Paramount Chiefs and members of the Administration in the Moyamba district. The Special Rapporteur also met with representatives of various religious communities. He participated in meetings of the Council of Churches, the United Council of Imams and the InterReligious Council of Sierra Leone. He had an opportunity to attend a gathering of the Union of Traditional Healers. Furthermore, throughout the visit he had substantive exchanges with different civil society organizations, both faith-based and secular, that specialize in human rights issues in the country. When visiting elementary schools, he talked to teachers and students, and during and after the press conference he communicated with journalists working for different national and local media. 3. The Special Rapporteur benefited enormously from the many discussions in Freetown and Moyamba, all of which took place in an open atmosphere. The visit would not have been possible without the valuable support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva and of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL). II. The legal situation concerning freedom of religion or belief A. International and regional provisions 4. The Republic of Sierra Leone has ratified, or acceded to, the majority of existing international human rights instruments. This includes the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which, in article 18, protects everyone’s right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief. While articles 2 and 26 of the Covenant provide protection against discrimination on several grounds including religion or belief, article 27 provides that persons belonging to minorities, including religious minorities, “shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language”. Provisions protecting freedom of religion or belief can also be found in other international instruments that are 4