A/HRC/10/21 page 13 18. Sources reported that 40 persons had been released. The Working Group wishes to thank those Governments that heeded its appeals and took steps to provide it with information on the situation of the persons concerned, especially the Governments that released those persons. In other cases, the Working Group was assured that the detainees concerned would receive fair trial guarantees. B. Future activities 19. The Working Group is aware of, and commends, the joint initiative on secret places of detention launched by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, which aims at studying and analysing the reality, as well as the objectives and implications, of secret places of detention on human rights. This thematic subject is of great importance, as the human rights of persons arrested, detained or imprisoned can only be enjoyed if the person is held in a public place. Access to legal counsel, to family, to a judge or other judicial authority, to education, to health and medical attention, and the right to denounce torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading practices, would be rendered impossible in secret or otherwise clandestine prisons. Therefore, the Working Group offers its full cooperation to this initiative. C. Country missions 1. Request for visits 20. The Working Group has been invited to visit Malta, Senegal and the United States of America. The visit to Malta has been scheduled to take place in January 2009. 21. During its fifty-first session, the Working Group held meetings with representatives of the Governments of Senegal and the United States to discuss possible dates for visits. The Working Group has also asked to visit Sierra Leone, a country which, in spite of having extended an open formal invitation to all the thematic mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, has not yet replied to the Working Group’s request. It has also made requests to visit Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina (a follow-up visit), Armenia, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, India, Japan, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malaysia, Morocco, Nauru, Nicaragua (a follow-up visit to Bluefields), Papua New Guinea, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 2. Follow-up to country visits of the Working Group 22. In accordance with its methods of work, the Working Group decided in 1998 to address a follow-up letter to the Governments of the countries it visited, requesting information on such initiatives as the authorities might have taken to give effect to the relevant recommendations adopted by the Group contained in the reports on its country visits (E/CN.4/1999/63, para. 36). 23. In 2008, the Working Group received replies to communications sent in 2007 and 2008 from the Governments of Belarus (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.3), Canada (E/CN.4/2006/7/Add.2),