A/61/340 defamation of religion and incitement to religious hatred, in particular its implications for article 20, paragraph 2, of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. IV. Conclusions and recommendations Awareness and transparency 70. The right to freedom of religion or belief continues to be significantly challenged in many contexts and different parts of the world. One of the reasons for this is a lack of awareness about the right to freedom of religion or belief and, indeed, about the different aspects of this right, both among governmental officials and ordinary citizens. The Special Rapporteur would therefore like to encourage Governments to cooperate with relevant international and regional organizations to carry out training and awarenessraising activities on the various elements, and parameters, of the right to freedom of religion or belief. Such training and awareness-raising programmes should not only be directed towards relevant government departments, but also towards the society as a whole. 71. In this regard, it is apparent that the relatively low level of awareness about the right to freedom of religion or belief in some countries is further compounded by a lack of transparency concerning the national legal and policy frameworks governing the various elements of the right to freedom of religion or belief. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize the importance of ensuring general openness and transparency about legal and policy frameworks relevant to this issue. 72. The Special Rapporteur considers that an important element of her work, and the work of the special procedures as a whole, is to raise awareness about issues relevant to their mandates. In addition to this more general awarenessraising role, she also considers that the special procedures have an important function as an early warning mechanism, and in this regard she considers that channels should be created through which information can be effectively and efficiently passed to decision makers in the international community. Religious intolerance 73. As a result of activities carried out under her mandate, the Special Rapporteur has observed a marked increase in the level of religious intolerance in many regions of the world. Accordingly, she considers that it would be both timely and appropriate for the international community, under the auspices of the United Nations, to develop a common global strategy to deal with rising religious intolerance. Within this global strategy, it would also be necessary to develop regional and subregional approaches in order to be able to respond effectively to those aspects of the issue that are specific to particular regional contexts. In this regard, she encourages the United Nations to consider carrying out regional consultations to identify the trends and patterns of religious intolerance present in each particular region and develop policy frameworks for approaching and responding to such issues. Such consultations would also 14 06-52068