A/72/287 I. Activities of the Special Rapporteur 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to General Assembly resolution 71/181. A. Country visits 2. The Special Rapporteur expresses his gratitude to the Governments of Australia and Fiji for the cooperation extended to him during his visits to these countries from 28 November to 5 December 2016 and 7 to 12 December 2016, respectively. 1 3. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Governments of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Morocco for inviting him to visit and hopes to honour these invitations soon. He further hopes to receive positive replies to his requests to visit India, Japan, South Africa, Thailand and the United States of America. B. Other activities 4. The activities of the Special Rapporteur from July 2016 to March 2 017 are reflected in his report to the Human Rights Council at its thirty -fifth session (A/HRC/35/41). Since March 2017, the Special Rapporteur has participated in a panel at the thirty-fourth session of the Human Rights Council, in March 2017, on the issue of racial profiling, as well as a commemorative event for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at the seventy -first session of the General Assembly on 21 March 2017. 5. The Special Rapporteur participated as a panellist at the first informal thematic consultation on human rights of all migrants, social inclusion, cohesion and all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance, which took place in Geneva on 8 and 9 May 2017, in the context of the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. 6. The Special Rapporteur was also invited to attend the informal meeting of the General Assembly in New York on 18 July 2017 to observe the annual Nelson Mandela International Day. II. Challenges to combating racism and xenophobia in the context of countering terrorism A. Introduction 7. The upsurge in terrorist attacks in recent times has prompted States in various regions of the world to adopt a variety of counter-terrorism measures. Despite the lack of consensus on a definition of terrorism, new frameworks have been adopted at the international, regional and national levels, obliging States to take measures to protect individuals from the threat of terrorist acts and to bring the perpetrators of such acts to justice. However, in many countries, counter -terrorism measures have provoked concern over human rights protection. Some States have adopted aggressive counter-terrorism legislation and policies, often used to target members of minority communities and religions. The Special Rapporteur has found that __________________ 1 17-13397 See A/HRC/35/41/Add.2 and Add.3. 3/23