CPT: 10TH GENERAL REPORT 13 WOMEN DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY Preliminary remarks 21. In certain of its previous general reports, the CPT has set out the criteria which guide its work in a variety of places of detention, including police stations, prisons, holding centres for immigration detainees, psychiatric establishments and detention centres for juveniles.3 Naturally, the Committee applies the abovementioned criteria in respect of both women and men who are deprived of their liberty. However, in all Council of Europe member States, women inmates represent a comparatively small minority of persons deprived of their liberty. This can render it very costly for States to make separate provision for women in custody, with the result that they are often held at a small number of locations (on occasion, far from their homes and those of any dependent children), in premises which were originally designed for (and may be shared by) male detainees. In these circumstances, particular care is required to ensure that women deprived of their liberty are held in a safe and decent custodial environment. In order to highlight the importance which it attaches to the prevention of ill-treatment of women deprived of their liberty, the CPT has chosen to devote this chapter of its 10th General Report to describing some of the specific issues which it pursues in this area. The Committee hopes in this way to give a clear indication to national authorities of its views regarding the manner in which women deprived of their liberty ought to be treated. As in previous years, the CPT would welcome comments on this substantive section of its General Report. 3 Police custody and imprisonment, cf. the 2nd General Report (CPT/Inf (92) 3), paragraphs 35 to 60; Health care services in prisons, cf. the 3rd General Report (CPT/Inf (93) 12), paragraphs 30 to 77; Foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation, cf. the 7th General Report (CPT/Inf (97) 10), paragraphs 24 to 36; Involuntary placement in psychiatric establishments, cf. the 8th General Report (CPT/Inf (98) 12), paragraphs 25 to 55; Juveniles deprived of their liberty, cf. the 9th General Report (CPT/Inf (99) 12), paragraphs 20 to 41. 22. It should be stressed at the outset that the CPT's concerns about the issues identified in this chapter apply irrespective of the nature of the place of detention. Nevertheless, in the CPT’s experience, risks to the physical and/or psychological integrity of women deprived of their liberty may be greater during the period immediately following apprehension. Consequently, particular attention should be paid to ensuring that the criteria enunciated in the following sections are respected during that phase. The Committee also wishes to emphasise that any standards which it may be developing in this area should be seen as being complementary to those set out in other international instruments, including the European Convention on Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the United Nations Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment.