A/HRC/34/54/Add.1 IV. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions 110. The human rights situation in Mauritania, including with regard to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, has improved since the years of the military regimes and the gross human rights violations committed during the passif humanitaire in the late 1980s and early 1990s. 111. Mauritania has strengthened its engagement with the international and regional human rights framework and has adopted several important pieces of legislation aiming at eradicating torture and ill-treatment, including the 2015 antitorture law and the 2015 law establishing the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 112. However, Mauritania must now implement the existing laws and safeguards for the protection from torture and ill-treatment. 113. Torture and ill-treatment still occurs frequently, in particular in the early stages of arrest and interrogation, often for the purpose of eliciting confessions. The gravity of the mistreatment inflicted increases with the gravity of the crime the individual is suspected of and is particularly serious in State security and terrorism cases. 114. Conditions of detention often amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Severe overcrowding affects the living conditions of inmates. Detainees are often faced with inadequate access to health care, including dental and psychiatric support, insufficient nutrition and water (both in terms of quantity and quality), almost complete lack of work and education opportunities, as well as insufficient access to sun, fresh air and recreational activities. 115. Impunity for acts of torture and ill-treatment remains the rule rather than the exception, partly owing to a lack of political will by the State and its judiciary and partly owing to highly deficient procedures related to the monitoring and documenting of allegations. B. Recommendations 116. In a spirit of cooperation and partnership, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government of Mauritania, with appropriate assistance from the international community, take decisive steps to implement the recommendations outlined below. 117. Regarding the legal framework, the Special Rapporteur recommends that the Government: (a) Systematically publish and distribute all international and regional human rights treaties ratified by Mauritania in order to guarantee their primacy over national law and awareness and understanding of their provisions and spirit by members of the legal profession and law enforcement personnel; (b) Effectively implement and enforce existing laws and safeguards for the protection from torture and other cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment or punishment; 19