E/CN.4/2002/137 page 7 7 August 2001, a note verbale was sent by the Secretariat to all Permanent Missions to the United Nations Office at Geneva, to international organizations and to relevant intergovernmental and non governmental organizations. At the time of writing, information and comments have been received from the following Governments: Argentina, Bahrain, Belarus, Colombia, Cuba, and Tunisia; as well as from the following non-governmental organizations: Amnesty International and the Omega Foundation. The Special Rapporteur is fully aware of the importance of the study requested. He believes that further information is needed to allow him to carry out this study effectively. In this regard, it is relevant to note that the first Special Rapporteur on torture, Peter Kooijmans, in his first report to the Commission on Human Rights recognized that numerous countries produce and export instruments specifically designed to inflict torture.15 The Special Rapporteur would welcome further information on this issue from governmental and non-governmental sources. 19. On 22 January 2002, the Special Rapporteur addressed the fifty-eighth session of the presessional open-ended working group on the question of a draft optional protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Notes 1 The summary of activities carried out by the Special Rapporteur in 2000 and of communications sent by the Special Rapporteur from 15 December 2000 to 12 November 2001, the date of his resignation from the mandate, and replies received thereto from Governments from 15 December 2000 to 1 December 2001 may be found in documents E/CN.4/2002/76 and E/CN.4/2002/76/Add.1. 2 For ease of reference, annex I to this report reproduces the press release issued on 10 December 2001 by 17 independent experts. 3 Article 4. 4 Article 3. 5 Article 2, paragraph 2 reads as follows: “[n]o exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”. 6 Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, of 12 August 1949, article 13 (emphasis added). 7 Ibid., article 14 (emphasis added). 8 Ibid., article 17. 9 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, article 75 (emphasis added).