E/CN.4/1997/7 page 13 Cambodia 39. The Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government seven individual cases. Cameroon 40. The Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government three urgent appeals on behalf of six persons. Canada 41. The Special Rapporteur sent one urgent appeal to the Government on behalf of an asylum seeker about to be deported to his country of origin. Government replied to this appeal. The Chad 42. The Special Rapporteur transmitted one urgent appeal to the Government on behalf of one person. Chile 43. The Special Rapporteur received replies from the Government with respect to 25 cases transmitted in 1995. 44. By a note verbale dated 10 September 1996 the Government transmitted its observations on the report on his visit to Chile which the Special Rapporteur submitted to the fifty-second session of the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/1996/35/Add.2). 45. The Government made the following comments regarding the obstacles to the democratic functioning of some of the highest institutions, constituted by laws inherited from the military regime, to which the Special Rapporteur drew attention in his report (paras. 4-8): (a) The democratic Governments have maintained their forthright opposition to the Amnesty Act; they have stated that it was unlawful and regretted that they had been unable to abrogate it as they lacked the necessary parliamentary majority. The legislation in force does not preclude investigations conducted by the courts from continuing until the facts have been elucidated and the identity of those responsible determined; (b) In August 1995 the President of the Republic submitted to the Senate a number of bills whose purposes were to do away with the institution of appointed senators, to change the composition of the Constitutional Court, to effect changes in the Security Council and to authorize the President to retire Generals without the need for a proposal by the relevant Commander-in-Chief. These bills were rejected by the Senate;