A/HRC/15/16 by foreigners had decreased, and 72.7 per cent of orphans were under alternative forms of guardianship. 17. At the United Nations, the President had launched the initiative to intensify international efforts to combat human trafficking, as a result of which a global plan of action was expected to be adopted at the United Nations. Owing to effective measures, the number of crimes involving human trafficking had decreased. Belarus had established an International Training Centre on Migration and Combating Human Trafficking. 18. According to the delegation, people from more than 130 ethnic groups lived in Belarus, and conflicts on ethnic, racial, cultural, linguistic or religious grounds had traditionally been non-existent. There were 123 voluntary organizations representing ethnic and cultural communities that received financial support from the Government. Persons belonging to a number of ethnic groups studied their mother tongue in educational institutions. Newspapers were published, and radio and television programmes were broadcast, in Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian. 19. The delegation mentioned the increase in the number of religious communities from 765 to 3,262 and the increase in the number of religious denominations from 8 to 25. Registered religious organizations were exempt from taxes and received State assistance for the restoration of religious buildings. 20. The delegation highlighted the active cooperation of Belarus with international organizations. Belarus had taken measures for the implementation of recommendations made by the special procedures mandate holders on freedom of expression and opinion; an independent judiciary and lawyers; the trafficking in persons, especially women and children; and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which had visited Belarus. Furthermore, Belarus had sent invitations to eight special procedures mandate holders of the Human Rights Council to visit the country. Belarus had also actively cooperated with treaty-based bodies and had submitted its periodic reports to five of those bodies in 2009. At the initiative of Belarus, representatives of OHCHR had visited the country in 2009 to discuss possible assistance or support for Belarus in protecting and promoting human rights. The delegation noted that the implementation of a joint project to strengthen human rights capacities had been planned. B. Interactive dialogue and responses by the State under review 21. During the interactive dialogue, 53 delegations made statements. An additional 31 statements, which could not be delivered during the interactive dialogue owing to time constraints, will be posted on the extranet of the universal periodic review when available.1 Recommendations made during the dialogue are found in section II of the present report. 22. A number of delegations thanked Belarus for its cooperation with the universal periodic review mechanism and commended the delegation for the comprehensive presentation of the national report. A number of delegations noted with appreciation that Belarus was party to most core human rights treaties of the United Nations. 23. The Russian Federation commended Belarus for achieving political stability and a high level of economic development. It noted impressive results in the area of basic 1 Viet Nam, Slovenia, Mexico, Pakistan, Kuwait, Chile, the United States of America, Germany, Angola, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Lebanon, the Holy See, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Jordan, Denmark, Slovakia, Cambodia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Latvia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Japan, Myanmar, Yemen, the Republic of Moldova, Serbia and South Africa. 5