A/70/335 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 68/151. The current mandate holder and his predecessors have all noted in their various thematic and country visit reports the necessity of producing disaggregated data in order to assess accurately levels of discrimination, inequality and progress, and develop adequate policies to redress the situation of vulnerable groups. The Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize that the lack of disaggregated equality and non-discrimination data has led to a serious information gap that limits effective policymaking at the national, regional and international levels. 2. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur wishes to stress again the necessity of collecting data disaggregated by ethnicity on economic, social, cultural, civil and political indicators as an essential means of tackling discrimination and inequality. Collecting non-discrimination and equality data would enable States to identify the patterns of violations and map existing gaps and needs, in order to feed that information into policymaking processes and also evaluate the impact of existing measures. Data is also required to effectively assess and monitor whether Member States respect, protect and fulfil their obligations under international law to combat discrimination. 3. That thematic focus is all the more timely, given that equality is at the heart of the post-2015 development agenda, which also pays due attention to groups subject to discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, colour, sex, age, language, religion, culture, migratory status, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic situation, birth, disability, or other status. In the proposal of the Open Working Group on the sustainable development goals ( A/68/970), targets 17.18 and 17.19 call for the collection of disaggregated data to measure progress while leaving “no one behind”, in other words, promote and foster non-discrimination and equality while upholding the universality of human rights and accountability. II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur A. Country visits 4. The Special Rapporteur expresses his gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea, which he visited from 29 September to 6 October 2014 (see A/HRC/29/46/Add.1) and to the Government of Greece, where he conducted a visit from 4 to 8 May 2015. 5. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Governments of Argentina and Australia for providing a positive response to his requests to visit and hopes to visit those countries in 2016. He also thanks the Government of Morocco for its invitation. He further hopes to receive a positive reply before the end of 2015 to his request to visit South Africa. B. Other activities 6. The activities of the Special Rapporteur between July 2014 and March 2015 are reflected in his report to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-ninth session 4/24 15-14106