A/60/316 6. With respect to fact-finding missions, the Special Rapporteur undertook a visit to Georgia, including the territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, from 19 to 25 February 2005 (a preliminary note on the visit was contained in document E/CN.4/2005/62/Add.3, and the final report will be presented to the Commission on Human Rights at its sixty-second session). The Special Rapporteur expressed his appreciation to the Government for the full cooperation it extended to him. He concluded, among other things, that torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials still exists in Georgia, and that conditions of detention are, in general, poor. Accordingly, a number of recommendations were addressed to the Government and the de facto authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 7. From 6 to 9 June 2005, the Special Rapporteur undertook a visit to Mongolia. The Special Rapporteur expressed his appreciation to the Government for the cooperation extended to him. He concluded that torture persists, particularly in police stations and pre-trial detention facilities. Concern was expressed at the secrecy surrounding the application of the death penalty, especially the absence of any official data. The deplorable conditions on death row and the lack of notification of families, among other things, amount to torture, in the view of the Special Rapporteur. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur, having received serious and credible allegations that persons on death row are detained in isolation and are kept handcuffed and shackled throughout their detention, regrets that prison authorities denied him access to these individuals despite the Government’s authorization of unimpeded access to detention facilities. The Special Rapporteur subsequently learned that one individual, Seded Bataa, had died in custody and he requested the Government to undertake a prompt and effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death. During the visit, he also found that the treatment of prisoners serving 30-year terms in isolation to be inhuman. The report on the visit will be submitted to the Commission at the sixty-second session. 8. On the question of pending visits, for the remainder of 2005, visits to Nepal and China are expected to take place in September and November 2005, respectively. An invitation to participate in a workshop on the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture in October 2005 was received from the Government of Mexico. 9. The Special Rapporteur continued to actively consider previous invitations for fact-finding visits extended by the Governments of Paraguay and Bolivia. Moreover, positive indications for future visits were received from the Governments of Côte d’Ivoire (first requested in 2005) and the Russian Federation with respect to the Republic of Chechnya (2000). 10. He regrets that despite long-standing requests, invitations have not been received from the Governments of Algeria (1997), Egypt (1996), India (1993), Indonesia (1993), Israel (2002), Tunisia (1998), and Turkmenistan (2003). The Special Rapporteur regrets that no invitation has yet been received from the Government of the United States of America with respect to the joint request made with the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health to visit persons detained on grounds of alleged terrorism or other violations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Guantánamo Bay military base (see E/CN.4/5/5, annex I). However, he is confident 4