FACTSHEET and detention centres, such as video cameras, are also typically absent during this period. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners require for transports to take place in conveyances with adequate ventilation or light, prohibit ‘unnecessary physical hardship’, and require that proper safeguards during transport are adopted to protect prisoners from insult, curiosity and publicity in any form.19 Audio-visual recording in police vans may provide an important safeguard against ill-treatment.20 What could monitoring bodies check? • Are detainees taken directly to the initial place of detention without delay? • Do transfers from one detaining agency to another have to be based on a judicial order? • Are records kept of transfers of prisoners, the law enforcement officials involved, the time of departure and of arrival at the subsequent place of detention? • Are authorities responsible for the place of detention required to certify that the prisoner arrived without injuries? • Are any means of surveillance or inspection in place to supervise actions of law enforcement during transport? • What are the conditions of transport? Are vehicles overcrowded? Do they take place in an overheated or cold vehicle? How long do transports take and is there an opportunity to use a washroom for longer transports? 3.5. Deficiencies in documentation of arrest and detention Cases of unacknowledged detention are a particularly high-risk situation with regard to torture and other illtreatment, as are enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention. Moreover, where there is no centralised register or case file system, authorities are unable to effectively monitor the length of time spent in pre-trial detention or ensure its regular review. Inadequate file management, lost files and poor communication between criminal justice actors can mean that authorities simply do not have accurate knowledge about who is due to be released.21 International standards on adequate and accurate recordkeeping of arrest and detention, and the requirement to hold detainees in places officially recognised as places of detention, seek to address these risks. The UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment and the revised Standard Minimum Rules enshrine the obligation to record precise information on every detainee’s identity; the reasons for, responsible authority, date and time of arrest; time (day and hour) at which the arrested person is taken to a place of custody as well as day and time of release and any transfer; first appearance before a judicial or other authority; identity of the law enforcement officials concerned and precise information concerning the place of custody; as well as any visible injuries and complaints about prior illtreatment. 22 It is also required that such records are communicated to the detained person, or his/her counsel.23 The UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has enshrined additional requirements of record-keeping: the authority responsible for supervising the deprivation of liberty; elements relating to the state of health of the person deprived of liberty; and in case of release or transfer, the destination and the authority responsible for the transfer.24 The revised Standard Minimum Rules specify that a standardised prisoner file management system should be kept in every place where persons are imprisoned, and may be an electronic database or a registration book with numbered and signed pages. They further require that procedures should be in place to ensure a secure audit trail and to prevent unauthorised access to or modification of any information contained in the system.25 The records should be subject to review by appropriate authorities and external oversight.26 In order to avoid this safeguard being undermined by a multitude of different records preventing adequate scrutiny, it is recommended that a single and comprehensive custody record should be kept. What could monitoring bodies check? • Is there a requirement by law to keep a record of arrest and detention? • What data is documented? Reasons for and time of arrest; first appearance before a judicial or other authority; identity of the law enforcement officials involved; precise information concerning the place of custody; authority responsible for supervising the deprivation of liberty; state of health of the detainee; date and time of release; date, time, destination and authority responsible for transfer? 19. Revised Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 73 (2). 20. See recommendation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) in the comparable context of deportations, CPT Standards, CPT/ Inf/E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2011, page 82, para. 44. Available at: www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf. <accessed 30 September 2013>. 21. Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human rights implications of overincarceration and overcrowding, 10 August 2015, A/HRC/30/19, para. 35. 22. Article 17 (3), International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; revised Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 7. 23. Ibid. 24. Article 17 (3), International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. 25. Revised Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 6. 26. Principle 12, UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment. Penal Reform International | Pre-trial detention: Addressing risk factors to prevent torture and ill-treatment |5