A/62/221 of persons who might be at risk of torture or other forms of ill-treatment to 50 Governments. Country visits 8. With respect to fact-finding missions, the Special Rapporteur undertook a visit to Nigeria from 4 to 10 March 2007. The visit included stops in Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kaduna. He expresses his appreciation to the Government for the cooperation it extended to him. The Special Rapporteur welcomes Nigeria’s commitment to promoting respect for human rights, as demonstrated by, among other things, its record of cooperation with international human rights mechanisms and organizations. He appreciates the challenges the State faces given the sheer size and diversity of the population, including ethnolinguistic and religious groups, the plurality of legal systems, the nature of the federal structure, the high level of crime, widespread poverty (despite the potential enormous wealth from oil revenues) and the conflict in the Niger Delta. On the basis of an analysis of the legal system, visits to detention facilities, interviews with detainees, the support of forensic medical evidence and interviews with government officials, lawyers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Special Rapporteur concluded that torture and ill-treatment is widespread in police custody and is particularly systemic in the Criminal Investigation Departments. The conditions of detention in police cells visited were appalling. All the prisons visited were characterized by severe overcrowding, housing an inmate population that is typically double or triple the actual capacity of the facility. The vast majority of the prison population is awaiting trial (i.e. in pretrial detention), or held without charge for lengthy periods of as long as 10 years. However, female prisoners are provided with considerably better facilities. The findings are not new as many credible human rights organizations, as well as United Nations human rights mechanisms, have documented the use of torture and concluded that it is widespread in the country, and that the conditions of detention are unacceptable. Nigerians themselves have exhaustively identified the nature and scale of these problems. Indeed, in August 2005, President Obasanjo acknowledged the severity of the problem of torture in the country. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur recommended a number of measures to be adopted by the Government in order to comply with its commitment to prevent and suppress acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. 9. The Special Rapporteur undertook a visit to Togo from 11 to 17 April 2007. He expresses his appreciation to the Government for the full cooperation it extended to him. Noting the overall commitment by the current Government to combat torture and the considerable improvements since 2005 in this regard in most of the police commissariats and gendarmerie posts that he visited, the Special Rapporteur found evidence of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, most of which was inflicted during interrogation for the purpose of obtaining a confession. He also heard allegations by detainees and found evidence of beatings by prison guards and other prisoners as a means of punishment. He is very concerned that children are at high risk of corporal punishment and ill-treatment in situations where they are deprived of their liberty. The Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that conditions in police and gendarmerie custody, as well as in most prisons, amount to inhuman treatment. In particular, he is concerned about the severe overcrowding in most prisons, the deplorable sanitary situation, the quantity and quality of food, as well as the restricted access to medical services. The Special Rapporteur identified the 4 07-45686