A/68/290 I. Introduction 1. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief was created by the Commission on Human Rights by its resolution 1986/20 and renewed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 6/37. At the fourteenth session of the Council, Heiner Bielefeldt was appointed as mandate holder and assumed his function on 1 August 2010. The Council, in its resolution 22/20, renewed the mandate for a further period of three years and requested the Special Rapporteur to report annually to the Council and to the General Assembly in accordance with their respective programmes of work. 2. In section II of the present report, the Special Rapporteur provides an overview of his activities since the submission of his previous report to the General Assembly (A/67/303). In section III, he focuses on the freedom of religion or belief and equality between men and women. Section IV provides his conclusions and recommendations to various actors in this regard. II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 3. The Special Rapporteur conducted various activities between 1 August 2012 and 31 July 2013 pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 6/37, 14/11 and 22/20. A. Country visits 4. The Special Rapporteur undertook a country visit to Sierra Leone from 30 June to 5 July 2013. 1 He expresses his appreciation to all his interlocutors and officials for the excellent cooperation they extended to him during his visit. 5. Additional country visits are currently being scheduled. This includes an agreed visit to Jordan in September 2013. During the reporting period, the Special Rapporteur also sent requests for country visits to the Governments of Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam. Updated information about the Special Rapporteur’s visits and related requests is available on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 2 B. Communications 6. The Special Rapporteur deals with individual cases or issues of concern brought to his attention. He sends allegation letters and urgent appeals to States seeking clarification on credible allegations of incidents and governmental action possibly incompatible with the provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (General Assembly resolution 36/55). __________________ 1 2 13-42191 The report of the visit to Sierra Leone will be presented to the Human Rights Council at its 25th session, in March 2014; the Special Rapporteur’s statement, presented at the end of his visit, is available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13506. See www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/CountryandothervisitsSP.aspx. 3/22