A/60/399 28. The Special Rapporteur is grateful to the Governments of Bangladesh, China, Israel and Mauritius for their invitations. She will follow up with their permanent missions in Geneva in order to pursue the matter further. 29. Besides the invitations extended, the Special Rapporteur notes that a number of States have acknowledged receipt of requests for visit or otherwise responded, but are either considering whether an invitation will in fact be extended or delaying the invitation. Taking into account that cooperation is expected from States in this regard by the Commission, the Special Rapporteur considers that postponing or delaying an invitation, especially for several years, demonstrates a lack of cooperation and that only invitations with proposed dates for a visit or which are closely followed by proposed dates correspond to the level of cooperation required by the Commission. 30. The Special Rapporteur is particularly concerned about the lack of cooperation from the Governments of the Russian Federation and Indonesia, to which requests for invitations had been sent long ago repeatedly. She takes advantage of this occasion to reiterate her willingness to carry out a visit to those countries as soon as possible and urges the Governments concerned to extend an invitation to her without further delay. 31. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned about the absence of responses from the Governments of Azerbaijan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, despite the requests made and reminders sent. 32. Finally, the Special Rapporteur is still waiting for a reply to the letters she sent recently to Egypt and the Islamic Republic of Iran with a view to carrying out country visits or to arrange dates for such a visit. She would be grateful for a reply from these States as soon as possible. 33. The Special Rapporteur wishes to mention that on 24 June 2005, she requested the Government of the United States of America to extend to her an invitation to visit persons detained in the Guantanamo Bay military base together with the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. She will be working closely with these mandate holders on the future developments concerning this request. C. In situ visits and freedom of religion or belief 34. In situ visits are a crucial aspect of the mandate on freedom of religion or belief and are undoubtedly the best way to assess the situation of freedom of religion or belief in a country. In carrying out country visits, the Special Rapporteur is able to assess the situation and its context first hand, in particular by directly meeting leaders or members of religious communities who are less accessible by other forms of communication. In this regard, she notes that certain religious communities in certain regions are in a better position than others to channel their information to Geneva. In situ visits are an appropriate means of rectifying this imbalance because they enable the Special Rapporteur to reach all individuals and 12