E/CN.4/1997/7 page 33 lack of resources and not a problem of detainees only. The Prison Department and the Ministry of Health were only able to meet the health needs of detainees from limited resources. 136. Kenyan prisons were 30 per cent overcrowded, but efforts were being made to decongest the prisons. On 20 October 1995 (Moi Day), the president released some 10,000 petty offenders serving custodial sentences. In December, the Government organized a symposium for law enforcement and judicial officers on extramural punishment, with a view to having more extramural sentences adopted to alleviate crowding in the prisons. On 20 February 1996 the Attorney General appointed an Interim Committee in Community Service to implement the symposium's recommendations and produce legislation to that effect. The Government had also expanded the capacity of old prisons, such as Nairobi Remand Prison, and had built new prisons in Busia and Siaya districts. It had also acquired more blankets, mattresses and clothing for prisoners. 137. The Special Rapporteur transmitted 24 individual cases and the Government replied to 14 of these cases. The Government also replied to two cases which had been transmitted in 1995. Observations 138. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the responses of the Government on a number of the cases he transmitted. He, nevertheless, believes that the nature and extent of the information he receives suggests the continuing desirability that he be extended an invitation to visit the country. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 139. The Special Rapporteur made one urgent appeal on behalf of eight persons. Mexico 140. The Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received reports according to which the courts continue to base their action on well-established case-law in accepting confessions, in many cases extracted under torture, as primary evidence in pronouncing convictions, although this is at variance with, inter alia , the Federal Act for the Prevention and Punishment of Torture. The remedy of amparo , which enables individuals to challenge acts by the authorities which violate rights established in the Constitution, is apparently ineffective in situations of this kind since, in accordance with existing case law, the first confession can still be used to convict a person even if it can be proved that it was obtained through the use of force. In addition, there is reportedly a tendency on the part of judges to disregard medical certificates furnished by defendants as proof of having been tortured. It was also reported that, pursuant to the above-mentioned Act, no convictions have yet been pronounced, even though the Act has been in force for several years. 141. The Special Rapporteur transmitted 13 newly reported cases to which the Government replied. He also retransmitted four cases from previous years,