CAT/C/TCD/CO/1 page 9 risks and inadequate health care, and violation of inmates’ right to visits. The Committee is concerned about reports of a failure to separate juvenile from adult prisoners and persons awaiting trial from convicted prisoners. It is also concerned at the reference in legislation governing pretrial detention to the undefined concept of a “reasonable” period and at reports that some persons awaiting trial have been detained in a remand centre for a period longer than the sentence incurred (arts. 11 and 16). The State party should take urgent measures to bring conditions of detention in gendarmeries, police stations and remand centres into line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, in particular by: (a) Reducing prison overcrowding, including by considering non-custodial forms of detention, and, in the case of children in conflict with the law, by ensuring that detention is only used as a measure of last resort; (b) Improving the food and the health care provided to detainees; (c) Reorganizing prisons so that persons awaiting trial are detained separately from convicted prisoners and improving the conditions of detention for minors, ensuring that they are detained separately from adults in all circumstances; (d) Reducing the frequency and duration of incarceration of persons awaiting trial, including by amending the Code of Criminal Procedure in order to set a maximum length of pretrial detention; (e) Taking appropriate measures to put a definitive end to alleged corruption and ransom demands in prisons; (f) Strengthening judicial supervision of conditions of detention. 26. The Committee notes with satisfaction that some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been granted permanent authorization to visit N’Djamena remand centre, but regrets that such access is not granted to all places of detention and that it is restricted to announced, accompanied visits with no possibility of communicating with detainees. The Committee notes the mandate entrusted to the National Human Rights Commission to monitor places of detention, but regrets that this body is unable to do so (art. 11). The State party should adopt all appropriate measures to enable NGOs to carry out periodic, independent, unannounced and unrestricted visits to places of detention. The State party should also provide all the human and financial resources necessary to enable the National Human Rights Commission to effectively carry out its mandate. National Human Rights Commission 27. The Committee notes with concern that the National Human Rights Commission is no longer operational, owing in particular to a lack of human and financial resources. Furthermore, the Committee regrets that the Commission does not comply with the Paris Principles in respect of its membership, lack of independence and lack of pluralism (arts. 2, 11 and 13).

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