E/CN.4/1998/38 page 5 II. ACTIVITIES OF THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR 4. During the period under review the Special Rapporteur undertook a mission to Mexico (7-16 August 1997). The report of the visit may be found in addendum 2 to the present report. The Government of Turkey has invited the Special Rapporteur to visit the country in the last quarter of 1998, an initiative for which he is most grateful. Requests made this year for invitations to visit Algeria and Egypt in the coming year received a positive reaction in a first contact with the Permanent Missions of the two States. The Permanent Mission of Cameroon contacted the Special Rapporteur in respect of his outstanding request for an invitation to visit the country leading him to hope that progress could be made in this respect. The outstanding requests for invitations to visit China, India, Indonesia and Kenya remain without positive response. 5. The Special Rapporteur participated in the fourth meeting of special rapporteurs/representatives, experts and chairmen of working groups of the special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights and of the Advisory Services Programme which took place in Geneva from 20 to 23 May 1997. From 5 to 7 May he attended part of the sixth session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice which took place in Vienna from 28 April to 8 May 1997. 6. He also attended a number of pertinent NGO meetings including an expert group meeting convened by REDRESS on the role of victims of crimes within the jurisdiction of the proposed International Criminal Court (Geneva, 15-16 March 1997); an Amnesty International meeting on universal jurisdiction (Netherlands, 9-11 May 1997); and an international conference on impunity organized by the International Institute for High Studies in the Criminal Sciences (Siracusa, Italy, 17-20 September 1997). The subject matter of these meetings contributed substantially to the recommendations that conclude the present report. He also participated in a panel of the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law (Washington D.C., 10-12 April 1997) examining the work of United Nations human rights protection machinery. III. INFORMATION REVIEWED BY THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR WITH RESPECT TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES 7. During the period under review, the Special Rapporteur sent 48 letters to 45 Governments on behalf of 380 individuals and 24 groups involving about 655 persons. About 74 were known to be women and about 56 were known to be minors. The Special Rapporteur also transmitted 119 urgent appeals to 45 countries on behalf of some 563 individuals (at least 19 known to be women and 9 known to be minors), as well as 22 groups of persons (one involving about 780 children) with regard to whom fears that they might be subjected to torture had been expressed. Together with individual cases the Special Rapporteur also transmitted to Governments allegations of a more general nature regarding torture practices, whenever these allegations were brought to his attention. In addition, 28 countries provided the Special Rapporteur with replies on some 345 cases submitted during the current year, whereas 19 did so with respect to some 290 cases submitted in previous years.