A/54/386 I. Introduction 1. At its forty-second session, the Commission on Human Rights decided, by resolution 1986/20 of 10 March 1986, to appoint for one year a special rapporteur to examine incidents and governmental actions in all parts of the world inconsistent with the provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, and to recommend remedial measures. 2. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur has been regularly renewed, in particular by resolution 1998/18 adopted by the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fourth session. Since 1988, the Special Rapporteur has presented the following reports to the Commission on Human Rights: E/CN.4/1987/35, E/CN.4/1988/45 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1989/44, E/CN.4/1990/46, E/CN.4/1991/56, E/CN.4/1992/52, E/CN.4/1993/62 and Corr.1 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1994/79, E/CN.4/1995/91 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1996/95 and Add.1 and 2, E/CN.4/1997/91 and Add.1, E/CN.4/1998/6 and Add.1 and 2, and E/CN.4/1999/58 and Add.1 and 2. Since 1994, the Special Rapporteur has also been submitting interim reports to the General Assembly (A/50/440, A/51/542 and Add.1 and 2, A/52/477 and Add.1, and A/53/279). This interim report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 53/140 of 9 December 1998. II. Report on communications sent by the Special Rapporteur and replies received from States since the publication of the report submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fifth session 3. This report relates to communications sent since the publication of the report submitted to the Commission on Human Rights at its fifty-fifth session and prior to the closure of that session (8 January-30 April 1999), and to communications sent since that session (after 30 April 1999). The replies received by the Special Rapporteur are also reflected. 4. With regard to the first series of communications, the following States were contacted: Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bulgaria, China, Comoros, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Nepal, Pakistan, Peru, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Yemen. 5. Of these 24 communications (including one urgent appeal to Iraq), sent to 24 States, for which the deadline for replying has expired, nine States have replied: Bulgaria, China, Eritrea, Greece, Iraq, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Syrian Arab Republic and Uzbekistan. 6. With regard to the second series of communications, 50 allegations (including one urgent appeal to the Islamic Republic of Iran) were sent to 41 States: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, China (2), Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Finland, Gabon, Georgia (2), Greece, India (2), Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel (3), Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan (2), Republic of Moldova, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkmenistan, Ukraine (2), United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan (2), Viet Nam and Yemen. 7. Of the 38 States for which the deadline for replying has expired, Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Finland, Georgia, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Kuwait have replied. 8. In total, 65 communications (including two urgent appeals) were sent to 49 States. 9. Since the deadline for replying has not yet expired for seven communications, addressed to China, Greece, India, Israel, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam, these allegations will be summarized in the next report to the Commission on Human Rights. 10. The Special Rapporteur has also noted in this report the replies received and the absence of replies to communications sent for the Commission’s fifty-fourth and fifty-fifth sessions. 11. The Special Rapporteur wishes to point out that these communications do not cover all the incidents and governmental actions in the world that are incompatible with the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. The fact that only a few States are covered in this report does not mean that other States are problem-free. Moreover, the length of a communication and/or the existence of several communications for a single State do not indicate the seriousness of the intolerance and discrimination in question. Likewise, while each communication refers to a given type of intolerance, this does not necessarily mean that other types of intolerance or discrimination do not occur in the same State. The 3