A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 6 SUMMARY OF CASES TRANSMITTED AND REPLIES RECEIVED Afghanistan Urgent appeal sent on 22 March 2006 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions 4. The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information received according to which on February 2006 Mr. Abdul Rahman was arrested after the police received information that he was a convert. He was found carrying a Bible at the time of his arrest. Mr. Rahman is currently being tried on the criminal charge of conversion from Islam to Christianity in a Kabul court. Mr. Rahman has acknowledged that sixteen years ago he converted to Christianity. He was informed by the Prosecutor of the Court that his charges would be dropped in case he reconverted to Islam. Mr. Rahman is unwilling to do so. According to the national law of Afghanistan, the penalty for conversion from Islam is the death sentence. Observations 5. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that she has not received a reply from the Government concerning the above mentioned allegation. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to ensure compliance with article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which clearly states that the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion “includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others, and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practise, worship and observance”. 6. Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur would like to refer to her framework for communications, more specifically to the international human rights norms and to the mandate practice concerning “Freedom to adopt, change or renounce a religion or belief” (see above para. 1, category I. 1.). The Special Rapporteur considers situations where people are arrested, tried or otherwise challenged because they had converted to another religion as unacceptable forms of violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief because, in essence, they limit or tend to limit the freedom of thought or conscience itself. This is sometimes called the “forum internum”, which, according to the main international instruments, forms the part of the right to freedom of religion or belief that is not susceptible to any limitation. The Special Rapporteur has already covered the question of conversion in detail in her 2005 report to the General Assembly (see A/60/399, paras. 40-68). She would like to reiterate that “[s]ince the choice of religion or belief is part of the forum internum, which allows for no limitations, a general prohibition of conversion by a State necessarily enters into conflict with applicable international standards. A law prohibiting conversion would constitute a State policy aiming at influencing individual’s desire to have or adopt a religion or belief and is therefore not acceptable under human rights law. A State also has the positive obligation of ensuring the freedom of religion or belief of the persons on its territory and under its jurisdiction.” (see A/60/399, para. 52).