E/CN.4/1992/17 page 4 14. The urgent appeal procedure is basically different from the transmittal of communications about alleged cases of torture. An urgent appeal is made whenever the Special Rapporteur receives information that a person has been arrested and fear is expressed that that person may be subjected to torture. Such fear may be based inter alia, on accounts by relatives or other visitors of the detainee's physical condition or on the fact that the detainee is kept incommunicado, a situation which is conducive to torture. An urgent appeal by the Special Rapporteur is of a purely humanitarian nature. The Government concerned is merely requested to assure the Special Rapporteur that the detained person's physical and mental integrity will be guaranteed. Such an appeal, moreover, provides the Government concerned with the opportunity to look into the matter and to uphold its obligations under international law by instructing the detaining authorities to respect the individual's right to physical and mental integrity. 15. In a small number of cases, subsequent to the sending of an urgent appeal to the Government concerned, the Special Rapporteur is informed by the source which made the request for urgent action that the person or persons regarding whom the request was made had already been released at the time the Special Rapporteur made his appeal. In such cases, the appeals may be considered null and void, and are not mentioned in the report. 16. Upon the invitation of the Government of Indonesia the Special Rapporteur visited that country from 4 to 16 November 1991 for consultations with the authorities and with professional and non-governmental organizations. The report on the visit will be presented in an addendum to the present report. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his deep appreciation to the Government of Indonesia for extending this invitation to him. As he said in previous reports, such visits provide him with highly useful information about the human rights situation in a country in general, and the occurrence of torture in particular, thereby enabling him to make recommendations to prevent torture, taking into account the specific legal and administrative context of that country. The usefulness of such visits for consultative purposes has also been recognized by the Commission on Human Rights, which in paragraph 19 of resolution 1991/38 encouraged Governments to give serious consideration to inviting the Special Rapporteur to visit their country so as to enable him to fulfil his mandate even more effectively. The Special Rapporteur expresses the hope that other Governments which may be approached by him in order to discuss the possibilities for a visit will take the same positive attitude as has been shown by the Governments of those countries which invited him in the past. Such consultative visits are a unique expression of the combined efforts of the organized international community and individual Governments to eradicate the evil of torture. 17. As was said before, the reports on country visits contain recommendations which are geared to the specific situation in the country concerned. The Special Rapporteur always invites Governments to provide him with their comments with regard to these recommendations. The Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government of the Philippines for its reaction to part of his recommendations. He is also grateful for additional information provided to him by the Government of Turkey, a country he visited in September 1988. The information received from these Governments appears in chapter III below. The Special Rapporteur regrets that to date he has receive»