A/69/44 attention to its general comment No. 3 (2012) on the implementation of article 14 by States parties, in which it elaborates on the nature and scope of States parties’ obligations to provide full redress to victims of torture. Coerced confessions (21) The Committee is concerned at reports that a number of detainees have alleged that they were forced to sign confession documents without understanding the documents or being aware of their content. While taking note of the constitutional safeguards establishing the inadmissibility of evidence obtained through torture, the Committee expresses concern at the lack of information on decisions taken by the Mozambican courts to refuse as evidence confessions that were obtained under torture (art. 15). The State party must adopt effective measures to guarantee that coerced confessions or statements are inadmissible in practice, except when invoked against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made. The State party should also ensure that law enforcement officials, judges and lawyers receive training in how to detect and investigate cases in which confessions are obtained under torture. The Committee requests the State party to include in its next report information on any specific jurisprudence excluding statements obtained as a result of torture and on any cases in which officials have been prosecuted and punished for extracting a confession under torture. Lynching (22) While taking note of the delegation’s statement that the number of cases of lynching has begun to decrease recently, the Committee remains concern at the persistence of this phenomenon. It also regrets that it has not received the information it requested on the outcome of investigations, related criminal proceedings and punishment of perpetrators (arts. 2, 12 and 16). The State party should continue to pursue its efforts to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish lynchings, including by continuing to conduct awareness-raising campaigns in communities. Violence against women and children, including domestic violence (23) While welcoming the information provided by the State party on measures taken to combat domestic violence (see para. 5 (c) of the present concluding observations), the Committee remains concerned about the high prevalence of domestic violence in the country. The Committee also notes with concern that the age of statutory rape of a minor is under 12 years (art. 394 of the Penal Code); that article 392 of the Penal Code includes virginity and seduction as prerequisites to define the crime of estupro; and that, pursuant to article 400 of the Penal Code, a person accused of a crime of rape who marries the victim is not subjected to pretrial detention (arts. 2 and 16). The State party should ensure that all cases of violence against women are thoroughly investigated, perpetrators are prosecuted and, if convicted, punished with appropriate sanctions, and that victims obtain redress, including fair and adequate compensation. The State party should complete the process of amending the Penal Code with a view to bringing the provisions criminalizing various forms of sexual violence and abuse into line with its obligations under international human rights law relating to women and children. Violence and sexual abuse against girls in schools (24) The Committee is seriously concerned about violence and sexual abuse against girls in schools by teachers and male classmates. According to information before the 60 GE.14-12596

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