A/HRC/41/52 highlighted. The Special Rapporteur believes civil society would be an asset in bringing about positive change should the Government approach civil society actors in the spirit of cooperation and treat them as partners. The Special Rapporteur encourages the Government to systematically involve civil society in policymaking, thereby promoting inclusiveness and increasing ownership. 9. Given the observations detailed in the present report, the Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that continued attention should be paid to the human rights situation in Belarus. B. Methodology 10. The work of the Special Rapporteur is based on the principles of independence, impartiality and objectivity. The Special Rapporteur seeks to cooperate with all stakeholders in order to give them the opportunity to provide information deemed relevant to them. 11. On that basis, the Special Rapporteur reached out to the Government on 22 November 2018 to request a visit to Belarus. Unfortunately, her request remained unanswered, thereby continuing the policy of non-engagement implemented by the Government during the six-year term of her predecessor. The Special Rapporteur regrets that the Government did not take advantage of the opportunity to cooperate and engage in a constructive dialogue. 12. Unable to conduct a visit to Belarus, the Special Rapporteur based her report on a variety of sources, including open-source information such as government statements, publicly available official documents and news articles, and information provided by civil society organizations, victims of violations and their relatives, representatives of international and regional organizations and the diplomatic community. 13. The Special Rapporteur does not aim to provide an exhaustive account of the human rights situation in Belarus, but to report on patterns of human rights violations based on the information and individual cases brought to her attention. II. Engagement with the international human rights system 14. Over the years, various international human rights mechanisms have made recommendations to the Government of Belarus to bring legislation, policies and practices into line with its commitments under international human rights law. Recent reviews by human rights treaty bodies show that the implementation of those recommendations remains extremely limited. Systemic issues still remain to be addressed and in-depth reforms still need to be undertaken. 15. Belarus was reviewed by the Committee against Torture in April 2018 (see CAT/C/BLR/CO/5). As a priority, the Committee asked Belarus to follow up on its recommendations pertaining to the implementation of fundamental legal safeguards for detainees; to the effective investigation of allegations of torture and ill-treatment; and to the cessation of the criminalization, detention and harassment of human rights defenders and journalists. The Special Rapporteur encourages Belarus to take advantage of those recommendations to review its practices. 16. Twenty-one years after its previous review in 1997, Belarus was reviewed by the Human Rights Committee in October 2018 (see CCPR/C/BLR/CO/5). Despite the significant delay, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the engagement of Belarus with the Committee and hopes this marks a renewed commitment of Belarus to respect its international obligations in regard to civil and political rights and to comprehensively implement the recommendations made by the Committee. That is particularly important in view of the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. 17. The Committee on the Rights of the Child plans to review the compliance of Belarus with the Convention on the Rights of the Child at its eighty-third session in 2020. The 4