with the prosecutor’s office frequently report reprisals and harassment from law enforcement officials to ‘persuade’ them to withdraw their allegations.”183 84. As the risk for torture or other ill-treatment is highest during arrest and in the early stages of police custody, but also continues throughout detention, including in prison settings, safeguards need to be in place to ensure that detainees can make complaints safely and, if they request, in a confidential manner.184 Where victims continue to be held in custody in reach of the state official accused of having committed acts of torture or other ill-treatment, making a complaint of torture can be extremely dangerous, and protections for detainees who allege torture are minimal to non-existent in many OSCE States. Measures should be taken immediately after allegations of torture have been raised to avoid any contact of the potentially involved persons with witnesses, the victim or the victim’s family, and to prevent any involvement of the alleged perpetrator(s) in the investigation. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has emphasised that “measures in this regard include the transfer of the complainant or the implicated personnel to a different detention facility or the suspension from duty of the personnel.”185 The UN Committee against Torture has recommended “protective measures including relocation, on site security, hotlines, and judicial orders of protection to prevent violence and harassment against complainants, witnesses, or close associates of such parties.”186 A recent report highlighted the general failure across Europe to treat detainees who are victims of violence in detention as victims, and to allow them access to victims’ rights.187 These barriers to reporting torture or other ill-treatment are exacerbated by a lack of awareness among detainees about their rights, and lack of access for CSOs, defence lawyers and independent monitoring bodies to places of detention. In one South Eastern European country, for example, although CSOs have access to prisons, they need approval from a judge in order to access pre-trial detention facilities.188 CSOs can play an essential role in educating detainees on their rights and facilitating the process for making an allegation of torture. Restricting access for CSOs and defence lawyers can, therefore, restrict a detainee’s ability to seek justice. 183 ICJ Global Redress and Accountability Initiative, op. cit., note 49, p. 6, referring to Tajikistan. 184 ODIHR/PRI, op. cit., note 4, Chapter 1.5; see also Nelson Mandela Rule 57(2). 185 Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/68/295, 9 August 2013, para. 77. 186 UN Committee Against Torture, Observations of the Committee against Torture on the revision of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, CAT/C/51/4, 28 March 2014, para. 55. 187 Fair Trials, op. cit., note 4. 188 ODIHR and Fair Trials roundtable meeting on incentives for torture, (December 2019) regarding Serbia. 54