E/CN.4/2006/5 page 9 23. She is particularly concerned at the absence of invitations from the Governments of Indonesia and the Russian Federation despite numerous requests and reminders. She also notes with concern the failure of the Governments of Egypt, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to respond to requests for an invitation. She encourages these Governments to extend her an invitation without delay and emphasizes that a formal invitation should be followed by proposals for the dates of the visit; otherwise, the invitation, whether standing or ad hoc, tends to lose its significance. 24. Along with a number of other special procedures, the Special Rapporteur requested an invitation to visit the United States detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Further information on this request is set out in the following section. C. Request for an invitation to visit the United States detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba 25. The Special Rapporteur is one of a group of five special procedures that requested a visit to the United States detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (herself plus the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention). 26. On 27 October 2005, the Government of the United States invited three of the five to visit the detention facilities, namely the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group. The Government limited the visit to one day and explicitly excluded private interviews or visits with detainees. On 31 October 2005, the experts accepted the short duration and the limitation on the number of mandate holders, but indicated that they could not accept the exclusion of private interviews with detainees, as that would contravene the terms of reference for fact-finding missions by special procedures and undermine the purpose of, forming an objective and fair assessment of the situation of the detainees. 27. On 18 November 2005, the experts informed that the Government had not accepted their conditions, and therefore the mission would not proceed. A joint preliminary report on the applicability of international human rights law to the persons held at the detention facilities in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as the human rights situation of the detainees will be submitted separately in document E/CN.4/2006/120. II. FRAMEWORK FOR COMMUNICATIONS A. The purpose of the framework 28. The right to freedom of religion or belief, as defined by international standards, is a wide-ranging right covering a large number of distinct yet interrelated issues. This diversity is very much reflected in the information and allegations received by the Special Rapporteur. In order to enable the Special Rapporteur to respond more effectively to the information she