PART D: Torture in the Promotional Mandate of the African Commission cooperate with the SRP facilitate follow-up visits. In the case of the follow-up visit to Mali, the SRP made a conscious effort to contrast the current reality with the recommendations made about two years earlier. However, this method achieved only partial success because there is no rigorous comparison of issues that were the subject of recommendations, and no ultimate finding of adherence or non-adherence. The lack of continuity between the first and second visits is especially apparent in respect of the visits to Mozambique. The most obvious explanation is that the two visits were undertaken by different SRPs. Another reason is the lack of specificity in the original recommendations. Urgent appeals are requests for the SRP’s assistance outside the ambit of a country visit. Such requests are usually of an urgent nature. They may be received from someone in a country already visited by the SRP or from a person in another country falling within the SRP’s mandate. The SRP can respond to such a request in two ways: – – The request may be transferred to the individual communication system developed by the Commission.596 The SRP could handle the request directly, through personal intervention directed at an amicable settlement. Such interventions emanate from personal pressure by the SRP, not the Commission. The main advantage of this alternative is that it allows the requester to circumvent the requirement that local remedies be exhausted.597 There is no clear policy or systematic guidelines addressing urgent appeals. On some occasions, for example when SRP Dankwa visited The Gambia, the first approach was applied. In a number of other cases the second option was employed, including in November 1999 when the SRP reacted to the detention without trial of a person in Angola by writing to the President of the country. In this case the person was released within two weeks and was able to speak with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This second option was also applied in Kenya, when the SRP urged the Kenyan authorities to provide proper health care to a prisoner (William Mwaura Mwangi) who was in danger of losing his life. The SRP was informed, by way of a letter from the Commissioner of Police, that his intervention caused the authorities to refer the detainee to one of the country’s best hospitals for treatment.598 When subsequently visiting Kenya as part of a promotional visit, the SRP was able to confirm that his appeal had succeeded. 596 See Part C, Section VIII of this volume. 597 See Part C, Section VIII, Subsection 4(f) of this volume. 598 See letter by the SRP dated 28 May 1998; letter by the Commissioner of Police dated 16 June 1998, on file at PRI offices, Paris. 143