A/54/426 treatment or punishment is considered to be well founded, the alleged offender or offenders shall be subject to criminal, disciplinary or other appropriate proceedings; (d) Where it is proved that an act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment has been committed by or at the instigation of a public official, the victim shall be afforded redress and compensation in accordance with national law; (e) Any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment may not be invoked as evidence against the person concerned or against any other person in any proceedings; (f) No State shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. III. Methods of work and other activities since 1993 13. The Special Rapporteur discharges his mandate mainly on the basis of information brought to his attention by non-governmental organizations, Governments, individuals and intergovernmental organizations. These communications contain specific cases of alleged torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and general information about questions related to torture. 14. While many of the organizations and individuals providing allegations are well known to the Special Rapporteur and other United Nations human rights officials as sources of credible information, sometimes allegations are received from less well-known or entirely new sources. The main criteria applied by the Special Rapporteur in the evaluation of such allegations are the degree of detail they contain concerning the victims and the precise circumstances of the given incident. Where doubt persists, the Special Rapporteur will seek corroboration of these allegations from other sources of undisputed credibility. The way in which the sources of allegations respond to the Special Rapporteur’s requests for comments on the contents of government replies and/or for additional details to clarify the cases they submitted will provide the Special Rapporteur with a basis for assessing the reliability of the sources. Where the information is considered to be credible, the Special Rapporteur transmits the allegations to the Governments concerned, either in the form of an urgent appeal or a letter. A. Letters of general allegation 15. In the first report submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the fiftieth session of the Commission on Human Rights, he reported that it was only possible to send one letter to Governments transmitting information alleging violations of the prohibition of treatment within the Special Rapporteur’s mandate, regardless of the incidence and quality of the information addressed to the Special Rapporteur. At the time he noted that this was an unfortunate situation: first, because it is desirable for Governments to be in possession of relevant information as expeditiously as possible; and second, because when information is transmitted later in the year, little time is left for the receipt of a response that can be reflected in the Special Rapporteur’s report for the year in question. This leads to even an initial exchange of correspondence being spread across more than one report. This, in turn, makes it difficult for a reader to obtain a properly balanced perspective concerning the original allegations or to assess the significance of any later governmental response. Moreover, much information that arrives after the transmittal of a letter to a Government must then wait until the following year before being transmitted to that Government. Further, if any response from a Government seems to the Special Rapporteur to warrant elucidation, he is only in a position to seek that elucidation within the context of the next letter of transmittal of information (see E/CN.4/1994/31, paras. 9 and 10). Regrettably, the limited resources of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights continue to dictate that only one letter can be transmitted each year to Governments. 16. Between December 1993 and 10 December 1998, the Special Rapporteur transmitted 330 letters, involving approximately 3,357 individuals, as well as 34 groups involving approximately 905 individuals. 17. Since December 1993, letters have been transmitted to the following 127 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire), Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ethiopia, 5