E/CN.4/1999/58/Add.1 page 3 Introduction 1. From 22 January to 6 February 1998, the Special Rapporteur on the question of religious intolerance visited the United States of America in the exercise of his mandate. During his mission, he went to Washington (22 January, 24-27 January, 5 and 6 February), Chicago (23 January), New York (27-28 January), Atlanta (29 January), Salt Lake City (30 January), Los Angeles (31 January-1 February) and Arizona (Phoenix and Black Mesa, 2-4 February). 2. The Special Rapporteur had talks with representatives of the State Department (including Thomas R. Pickering, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, John Shattuck, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and various other officials) and of its Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad; he also met officials from the Departments of Justice (including the Hate Crime Task Force and Office of the Legal Counsel), the Interior and Education (Office of Non-Public Education), the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Equal Employment Opportunity Council. In addition, he had talks with Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer, Justices of the Supreme Court, to whom he is particularly grateful. 3. The organization of official meetings presented problems inasmuch as the State Department confined its assistance to meetings held at the federal level, declaring that it was not competent to help with the Special Rapporteur's visits to the states; this highly regrettable lack of cooperation meant that few meetings with official state representatives were arranged. In fact, the meetings with the Governor of Utah, certain administrations, various committees (concerned with such matters as human rights or hate crimes) and legislators came about through the assistance of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, non-governmental organizations and private individuals. 4. The Special Rapporteur also had consultations with a great number of non-governmental organizations in the field of human rights and with representatives of most religions and beliefs: Native Americans, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, Baha'is, Scientologists, atheists, etc. An essential part was played in the success of this mission by the assistance of non-governmental organizations and private individuals, including in particular: Michael Roan of the NGO Tandem Project in Minneapolis; Craig Mousin of DePaul University in Chicago; John Witte Jr. of Emory University in Atlanta; Cole Durham of Brigham Young University in Utah; Sue Nichols, chairman of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief in New York; Jeremy Gunn of the United States Institute for Peace in Washington; Andrea Carmen of the NGO International Indian Treaty Council; Salam Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Interreligious Council of Southern California in Los Angeles; the International League for Human Rights; the International Religious Liberty Association; and the American Jewish Committee. To all of these the Special Rapporteur would like to express his thanks. His thanks also go to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.