A/HRC/52/38 B. Advancing the work of the mandate 35. The key means of advancing the work of the mandate28 is through communications, thematic reporting and country visits. 36. Communications include advocacy letters, in which a mandate holder seeks to prevent or remedy alleged violations of freedom of religion or belief in particular States, letters offering guidance on emerging or existing policies and public statements. Advocacy letters remain confidential for 60 days to allow States the opportunity to provide a substantive response and to remedy the situation. These largely remain unanswered, however, which only indicates the veracity of the allegation. In its resolution 49/5, the Human Rights Council urged all Governments to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur and to provide the mandate holder with all the information necessary to enable her to fulfil the mandate more effectively.29 The mandate holder considers that communications offer a unique opportunity for engagement, because they offer the opportunity for a substantive dialogue and cooperation with States, civil society organizations, victims and other stakeholders, connecting human rights standards to concrete situations. She will prioritize communications, including the transmittal of letters to States following up on previous recommendations. In the first five months since taking up the mandate, the Special Rapporteur sent 22 communications. 37. The mandate holder has made some revisions to the underlying structure of the mandate’s framework for communications. 30 The Special Rapporteur will also publish a second edition of the Rapporteur’s Digest on freedom of religion or belief, with new normative texts and pertinent thematic excerpts from reports issued under the mandate.31 38. Through thematic reporting, mandate holders draw attention to opportunities to advance freedom of religion or belief for all, emerging challenges, neglected topics, areas requiring urgent attention and, on occasion, areas witnessing improvement. The Special Rapporteur has devised a number of specific activities in order to follow up on previous thematic reports issued under the mandate. 39. The mandate holder will focus reports and public engagement activities in the coming years on areas including freedom of religion or belief and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and freedom of religion or belief and displacement, addressing migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons. 40. Despite the fact that two thirds of States Members of the United Nations have issued standing invitations to allow thematic special procedure country visits, the process of securing a country visit and agreeing upon mission dates with those and other States remains very time consuming. The mandate holder has mapped the regions and countries that have had previous visits, and will be mindful of that record in planning future country visits. A total of 45 country visits under the mandate have been conducted over the past 36 years. Many of the recommendations emanating from those visits are still highly pertinent, and the respective States are urged to reconsider those recommendations and be in touch with the mandate holder for any support. The recommendations are also highly relevant to the universal periodic review process, stakeholder reports submitted in the context of the universal periodic review and shadow reports to relevant treaty bodies. The mandate is keen to provide technical advice and assistance to States and other actors who seek to advance freedom of religion or belief. 41. The three dimensions of freedom of religion or belief make this freedom relevant to every United Nations human rights treaty body. The Human Rights Committee’s general 28 29 30 31 8 And the special procedures, in general. See also https://www.oas.org/dil/treaties_b-32_american_convention_on_human_rights.pdf. Developed by Asma Jahangir. See E/CN.4/2006/5, annex. The updated framework for communications is available from https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/religion/2023-01-24/SR-religionFramework-for-communications.pdf. The first edition of the Digest is available from https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/tools-andresources/special-rapporteurs-digest-freedom-religion-or-belief. GE.23-00741