A/51/542 English Page 6 24. Recalling Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/18 encouraging him to examine the contribution that education can make to the more effective promotion of religious tolerance, and Commission resolutions 1995/23 and 1996/23, as well as General Assembly resolution 50/183 stressing the importance of education in ensuring tolerance of religion and belief, the Special Rapporteur invites all other States to reply to the questionnaire addressed to them, in order to give proper scope to the results of this international survey. Once again, because of the insufficient resources allocated to the Special Rapporteur’s mandate and despite the repeated pledges made by the Administration, it has not been possible to begin the sorting and analysis of replies that is necessary for the formulation of a draft international strategy and that will have to be undertaken as soon as possible. IV. STATUS OF COMMUNICATIONS SINCE THE FIFTY-SECOND SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS 25. This report on the status of communications and replies concerns communications sent since the fifty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights, the replies or absence of replies from the States concerned and late replies. 2/ 26. Because of drastic budget cuts, the Special Rapporteur has been unable to publish these communications and the replies from States, contrary to the practice followed since the establishment of his mandate. This constraint is highly detrimental to the paramount importance of information and to its educational function and ultimately constitutes a form of information censorship that seriously undermines the Special Rapporteur’s mandate. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur has analysed the information and can provide anyone with copies of the communications and replies available at the Centre for Human Rights in Geneva. 27. Since the fifty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur has sent communications to 35 States: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Chad, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Georgia, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Viet Nam and Yemen. 28. As to urgent appeals, Egypt was sent a second such appeal concerning Professor Nasr Abu Zeid of Cairo University, who was tried on 13 June 1995 by a court for his writings on interpretations of the Koran deemed anti-Islamic by Islamist plaintiffs. Professor Abu Zeid was allegedly declared an apostate by the court and required to divorce his wife (see E/CN.4/1996/95). The Special Rapporteur sent a first urgent appeal on 22 June 1995 and a reminder on 13 September 1995, and, on 19 February 1996, received a reply from the Egyptian authorities indicating that a final judgement had yet to be handed down in the case, that the case did not affect Professor Abu Zeid’s professional status, that no decision to confiscate or ban his works had been taken and that his safety was assured. Moreover, Act No. 3 of 1996 had made the institution of legal proceedings on religious grounds the sole prerogative of the government /...