Effectiveness and independence of the Commission on Human Rights (16) The Committee is concerned that, in a number of instances, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) has been denied entry into jails and detention facilities mostly under the jurisdiction of the military. The Committee is also concerned that Section 19 of the 2007 Human Security Act grants the CHRP authority to prolong detention of suspects. In the view of the Committee, these measures compromise the capacity of the CHRP to monitor the State party’s human rights compliance (arts. 2, 11 and 12). The State party should take the necessary steps to strengthen the mandate, including access to detention facilities, and independence of the CHRP, including through adoption of the proposed CHRP Charter as well as allocation of sufficient resources for its effective implementation. The visitation mandate of the CHRP should include unhampered and unrestrained access to all detention facilities, including those under the jurisdiction of the military. Ill-treatment in detention centres (17) While welcoming the measures undertaken by the State party through the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to improve conditions of detention, including the release of a total of 3,677 inmates in 2008 or nine per cent of the prison population, the Committee is concerned that there is severe overcrowding, sub-standard facilities and lack of basic facilities (arts. 11 and 16). The Committee recommends that the State party: (a) Continue its efforts to alleviate the overcrowding of penitentiary institutions, including through the application of alternative measures to imprisonment and the increase of budgetary allocations to develop and renovate the infrastructure of prisons and other detention facilities; (b) Adopt the BJMP Modernization Act of 2007 (House Bill No. 00665), filed on 30 July 2007 that seeks to upgrade the physical facilities of jails and detention centres; (c) Take effective measures to further improve living conditions in the detention facilities. Sexual violence in detention (18) While noting the enactment of a number of relevant laws and that the State party has established a total of 31 female dormitories, the Committee expresses serious concern at numerous allegations of cases of rape, sexual abuse and torture committed against women detainees by the police, military and prison officials/personnel. In this respect, the Committee is concerned about reports that in many provincial jails, officials continue to place women together with male inmates, and that male corrections officers continue to guard female inmates in violation of agency regulations (arts. 11 and 16). The State party should take effective measures to prevent sexual violence in detention, including by reviewing current policies and procedures for the custody and treatment of detainees, ensuring separation of juvenile detainees from adults, and of female detainees from males, enforcing regulations calling for female inmates to be guarded by officers of the same gender, and monitoring and documenting incidents of sexual violence in detention, and provide the Committee with data thereon, disaggregated by relevant indicators. The State party should also take effective measures to ensure that detainees who allegedly are sexually victimized are able to report the abuse without being subjected to punitive measures by staff, protect detainees who report sexual abuse from retaliation by the perpetrator(s), promptly, effectively and impartially investigate and prosecute all instances of sexual abuse in custody and provide access to confidential medical and mental health care for victims of sexual abuse in detention, as well as access to redress, including compensation and rehabilitation, as appropriate. Furthermore, the Committee calls upon the State party to consider enacting the draft Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2008. 119