A/HRC/16/53 I. Introduction 1. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief was created by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1986/20 and renewed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 6/37. On 18 June 2010, the Special Rapporteur’s mandate was extended for a further period of three years by the Human Rights Council through its resolution 14/11. 2. During the fourteenth session of the Council, Heiner Bielefeldt was appointed as Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief; he took office on 1 August 2010. He very much values the wealth of experience collected during the last 24 years by the three previous mandate holders: Asma Jahangir, Abdelfattah Amor and Angelo Vidal d’Almeida Ribeiro. It is his aspiration to continue this work in the spirit of cooperation with States and all relevant stakeholders. The Special Rapporteur also wishes to highlight the excellent support provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in particular its Special Procedures Branch. 3. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur first gives an overview of the mandate activities since the submission of the previous report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/13/40) (chap. II). He then focuses on the theme of freedom of religion or belief and school education, referring to relevant international human rights documents, the elimination of stereotypes and prejudices, the issue of religious symbols in the school context and religious instruction in schools (chap. III). In his conclusions, the Special Rapporteur notes that freedom of religion or belief and school education is a multifaceted issue that entails significant opportunities as well as far-reaching challenges. He recommends that States should favourably consider a number of principles in this regard (chap. IV). II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 4. The Special Rapporteur’s activities include sending communications to States concerning individual cases, conducting official country visits, participating in meetings with representatives of States, religious or belief communities and civil society organizations and delivering speeches and issuing public statements. In this chapter, the Special Rapporteur has clustered the overview of recent mandate activities under five headings pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 6/37 and 14/11. A. Promotion of the adoption of measures at the national, regional and international levels to ensure the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief 5. At the national level, the Special Rapporteur was invited to participate in an expert hearing on 27 October 2010 held by the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the German Bundestag, the Parliament of Germany. During the public hearing in Berlin, a number of questions relating to “freedom of religion and European identity” were discussed by the experts and members of Parliament. 6. At the regional level, the Special Rapporteur attended the Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Religion or Belief held by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna on 9 and 10 December 2010. The meeting focused on freedom of religion or belief and the Special Rapporteur was a speaker in the panel discussion on education and religion or belief. Ahead of Human Rights Day 2010, he 3