A/HRC/13/39/Add.5 encouraged by high Government officials to be as critical as possible despite the fact that the conditions in some prisons were truly appalling. My recommendations to shut down some of these facilities were immediately taken up by an order of the President of the Republic. 18. The lessons from these few examples and observations seem to be clear. The aim of assisting Governments in their efforts to improve the situation can only be achieved if Governments are genuinely interested in soliciting an objective assessment from an external expert, by engaging in an open and frank dialogue based on mutual trust and respect. Governments have no obligation to invite me. But it seems that several Governments invited me for other motives, such as earlier pledges and commitments to the Human Rights Council in order to be elected and a general political desire to show to the international community that they actively cooperate with special procedures. Sometimes, certain members of a Government (usually the Minister of Foreign Affairs) are genuinely interested in my mission, while others (often the law enforcement, intelligence, military and prison authorities) are not. These half-hearted invitations create a difficult situation for all the actors involved. The authorities of the country are under considerable pressure to hide the real situation, to monitor my activities with distrust and to make my fact-finding as difficult as possible. This leads to suspicions and distrust on my part, which may not always be justified. Often, I had the impression of getting involved in “cat and mouse games” without knowing who was the cat and who was the mouse. Sometimes, it needed considerable efforts from my side to break through a “wall of silence” or a “wall of lies” which had been erected by the authorities when instructing detainees about how they should interact with me. But even more frustrating were situations in which Governments withdrew or postponed earlier invitations at a stage when all substantive and logistical preparations for a mission had been finalized or the mission had already begun, as in Zimbabwe. C. Follow-up to country missions 19. Since I have only limited capacities to carry out country missions, I usually do not find time for follow-up missions. Nevertheless, I have a particular interest in the development of the situation of torture and ill-treatment in countries, which I or my predecessors had visited before. In an ideal situation, Governments take my findings and recommendations seriously and develop a plan of action aimed at implementing these recommendations, either alone or with the assistance of the international community. If I have the impression that Governments have a genuine interest in improving the situation by implementing at least some of my key recommendations but lack the necessary financial means, I usually appeal to UNDP and other donors to assist them. 20. In order to be kept informed about more recent developments, I send Governments and other stakeholders a request to provide information on the activities undertaken to implement my recommendations and the results achieved. Governments have no obligation to implement any of my recommendations. They may pick and choose. But I am grateful to be informed about which recommendations they accept and endeavour to implement. Several Governments, including Georgia, Moldova, Nepal, Togo, Nigeria, Paraguay and Uruguay informed me about having accepted most of my findings and recommendations and their efforts of implementing them, and NGOs sometimes explicitly confirm this information. In several countries, such as Uzbekistan, where my predecessor Theo van Boven has found a systematic practice of torture, the information provided by the respective Governments is contradicted by information I received from NGOs and other reliable sources. But without conducting a follow-up mission, it is impossible for me to assess the real situation and the extent to which my recommendations have been implemented. My repeated requests to Uzbekistan, for example, to invite me for a follow9