A/HRC/4/25 page 5 non-governmental organizations including the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In October, in New York, he again held meetings with representatives from some permanent missions and many non-governmental organizations. 7. In June, the Special Rapporteur met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Maldives in Geneva. The Minister repeated his Government’s invitation to undertake a mission to that country. The Rapporteur held consultations on this matter with officials of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in order to prepare for the visit, which was originally scheduled for November, but then postponed until early 2007. The Rapporteur wishes to thank the Government of Maldives for its kind invitation and for its understanding of the difficulties that obliged him to defer his visit. 8. During 2007, the Special Rapporteur also intends to conduct missions to Cambodia, as part of the follow-up to a mission by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to the Russian Federation. If possible, the Special Rapporteur will also visit Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and he hopes to visit Guatemala in 2008. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the Governments which have already extended invitations. Replies are awaited from the Governments of Cambodia, Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the future, the Special Rapporteur has expressed a desire to visit the Philippines, Nigeria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Replies are awaited from the Governments of these countries. C. Urgent appeals and letters of allegation addressed to Governments, and press releases 9. Document A/HRC/4/25/Add.1 contains a summary of the allegations sent to various Governments and the answers received, along with statistics for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. As an indication, between 1 January and 8 December 2006, 97 urgent appeals, 39 letters of allegation and 9 press releases were issued. In response to these 145 communications, which concerned situations in 54 countries, the Special Rapporteur received 51 responses from 29 countries. II. CLASSIFICATION OF THE SITUATIONS ADDRESSED BY THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR, 1994-2006 10. One of the Special Rapporteur’s main activities is to consider allegations received and decide what action should be taken in response.1 For this purpose, under the generic title “communications”, the Special Rapporteur has available to him two procedures, urgent appeals and letters of allegation, which allow him to consult governments about: 1 Depending on the content and scope of the allegations, such steps may be taken individually or together with one or several other Special Rapporteurs.