A/HRC/34/54/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, visited Mauritania, at the invitation of the Government, from 25 January to 3 February 2016. 2. During his mission, the Special Rapporteur met with the President, the Prime Minister and representatives of: the Office of the Commissioner on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization, the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Children and Family, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals in Nouakchott, the National Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, the police, the intelligence services, the gendarmerie, the national guard and the national bar association, as well as the administrative, judicial and security services in the regions he visited. He also met with representatives of United Nations agencies, embassies and civil society organizations, and with victims of torture and their relatives. 3. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Office of the Commissioner on Human Rights and Humanitarian Action for facilitating his visit and expresses appreciation to the Government for granting access to detention facilities, including a maximum security penitentiary, in accordance with the terms of reference for fact-finding missions by special rapporteurs (see E/CN.4/1998/45, appendix V). A concerning exception is the refusal to provide timely access to a place that may be an unofficial detention location and where individuals suspected of committing acts of terrorism may have been held. 4. The Special Rapporteur shared his preliminary findings with the Government of Mauritania at the conclusion of his visit. II. Legal framework A. International level 5. Mauritania is a party to the main United Nations human rights treaties prohibiting torture and ill-treatment, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and its Optional Protocol, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 6. International treaties have primacy over national law once they have been ratified and published. Regrettably, the main human rights treaties ratified by Mauritania, including the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, have only been published in a December 2014 special issue of the Official Journal and have not been widely distributed. B. Regional level 7. Mauritania is a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, its Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa and its Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It is also a party to the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and has subscribed to the Guidelines and Measures for 3