UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief seeks visit

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, Asma Jahangir, who reports on violations of religious freedom around the world on behalf of the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, continues to seek invitations to visit the Central Asian states of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. "As part of my mandate, I am keen to visit both of these countries," Jahangir, a prominent human rights activist and lawyer from Pakistan, told IRIN from London on Monday, adding: "I hope an invitation will be forthcoming." But that may prove a challenge. According to a report one day earlier by the Forum 18 News Service, an agency monitoring religious freedom in the former Soviet republics and eastern Europe, officials of neither country were able to explain why earlier requests to visit the two countries had gone unmet. Turkmenistan's Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov replied through an aide that he was "too busy" to reply to the question, while Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said they were unable to say why no invitation had been issued, the report claimed. Jahangir, who has been the Special Rapporteur since 2004, has called for a new mechanism to be created to deal with countries where there is serious concern for religious freedom, but which fail to cooperate with her requests to visit them. Although agreeing in principle to a visit, Russia has not set a date for one. Jahangir's next visit is due to be to Azerbaijan from 26 February to 6 March, Forum 18 reported. As part of her mandate, Jahangir raises urgent cases with individual governments of "infringements of or impediments to the exercise of the right to freedom of religion and belief", seeking their responses. In her 30 September 2005 annual report to the UN General Assembly (A/60/399), she described country visits as a "crucial aspect of the mandate on freedom of religion and belief", highlighting that such visits allow her to meet "all individuals and religious communities that are facing difficulties", especially those that do not have the capacity to provide her office in Geneva with information. Noting her concern that countries that cooperate with her requests to visit are not necessarily those where there is "serious concern with regard to the situation of freedom of religion or belief", the prominent activist called for a new mechanism to be created to deal with countries where there is a serious concern but which fail to cooperate with her mandate, the report said. Chary Atahanov, acting head of the Turkmen foreign ministry's Department for the United Nations and International Organisations, was unavailable on 24 and 25 January. But Maksat Bekiev, an official of the department, who said he has been involved in contacts with the UN, declared that he too did not know why Jahangir's request for an invitation had not been met. "I cannot say when she will be allowed to visit," he reportedly told Forum 18 from the Turkmen capital, Ashgabad, on Tuesday. "But you cannot say she has had no response to her letters – we replied to her in 2004 and 2005. We answer all her letters." According to Forum 18, in her September 2005 report to the UN General Assembly, Jahangir reported that she had that year "reminded" the Turkmen government of the 2003 request for permission to visit the country and the Uzbek government of her 2004 request. In response to both her reminders, she reported laconically: "No reply", expressing her concern at both countries' failure to respond.