CAT/C/SYR/CO/1 (c) Improving the conditions of detention for minors, ensuring that they are detained separately from adults; (d) Strengthening the judicial supervision of conditions of detention. Children in detention 31. While noting the State party’s information that juvenile offenders are not given criminal records and are not subjected to capital punishment, the Committee is concerned by the fact that the Juvenile Offenders Act No. 18 applies only to children under the age of 15 (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The State party should classify all persons under 18 as juveniles in order to extend the protection offered by the Juvenile Offenders Act. Deaths in custody 32. The Committee expresses its concern at credible reports on a number of deaths in custody and on the alleged restrictions on independent forensic examination into the cases of such deaths (arts. 12 and 16). The State party should promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate all incidents of death in custody and, in all such cases, prosecute those responsible. The State party should provide the Committee with information on any cases of death in custody resulting from torture, ill-treatment or wilful negligence. The State party should also ensure independent forensic examinations and accept their findings as evidence in criminal and civil cases. Coerced confessions 33. The Committee is concerned at the lack of legal provisions explicitly prohibiting the use of confessions and statements obtained as result of torture as evidence in judicial proceedings. It is alarmed by reports that confessions obtained by torture are invoked as a form of evidence in proceedings, especially in the Supreme State Security Court and the military courts, and that the defendants’ claims that they have been tortured are almost never investigated (art. 15). The State party should amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to explicitly prohibit the use of any statement obtained as a result of torture as a form of evidence in judicial proceedings. It should also take the necessary measures to ensure that statements made under torture are not invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture, in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. The State party is requested to review criminal convictions based solely on confessions, especially those ruled by the Supreme State Security Court and military courts, in order to identify instances of wrongful conviction based on evidence obtained through torture or ill-treatment and to take appropriate remedial measures. Human rights defenders 34. The Committee is concerned about reports of persisting acts of harassment and persecution, including threats and other human rights violations, experienced by human rights defenders, and about the fact that such acts go unpunished (arts. 12 and 16). The State party should take all necessary steps to ensure that all persons, including those monitoring human rights, are protected from any intimidation or violence as a result of their activities and exercise of human rights guarantees, to ensure the 12