A/HRC/34/54/Add.1 the Prohibition and Prevention of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in Africa (the Robben Island Guidelines). C. National level 8. The Constitution was adopted in 1991 and revised in 2006 and 2012 to, among other things, classify torture (and slavery and slavery-like practices) as crimes against humanity (art. 13). 9. The Penal Code did not used to establish acts of torture as a discrete offence. In accordance with the constitutional amendment of 2012, Law No. 2013/011 of 23 January 2013 established torture as a specific crime punishable as a crime against humanity (art. 3) and removed the statute of limitations (art. 1), yet did not define the crime of torture. In September 2015, Law No. 2015-033 (the anti-torture law) was adopted, replacing the 2013 law. It contains a definition of torture and provisions on the interdiction, prevention and repression of torture and on reparation and protection measures. In addition, it includes new guarantees for all persons deprived of their liberty. 10. In accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in September 2015 Mauritania also adopted Law No. 2015-034, which establishes the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture, the purpose of which is to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in places of detention, including by conducting scheduled and unscheduled visits to places of deprivation of liberty, receiving complaints of torture and ill-treatment and transmitting them to the competent administrative or judicial authority, providing advice on draft laws, making recommendations and contributing to outreach efforts (art. 3). The Mechanism’s president and 12 members were nominated by decree in April 2016.1 At the time of writing, however, the NPM did not seem fully operational and, despite having organised an introductory seminar in August 2016 and conducted some initial visits, had not adopted a long-term strategy nor received adequate financial means and resources to fulfil its mandate. 11. The Code of Criminal Procedure contains additional safeguards in its preliminary articles, in which it is specified that confessions obtained under torture or as a consequence of violence or force are invalid, and in its article 58, which states that the human dignity of all persons under any form of deprivation of liberty must be respected and that persons deprived of their liberty cannot be subjected to psychological or physical ill-treatment or be held in a place other than the one provided for by law for that purpose. 12. Moreover, in line with article 15 of the National Police Regulations Act (Law No. 2010.07 of 20 January 2010), members of the national police shall abstain from all cruel or degrading treatment. 13. According to article 10 of order No. 2005-015 of 5 December 2005 on the protection of children, subjecting children to acts of torture or brutality is punishable with six years of imprisonment. If the offence is committed repeatedly or occasions damage, mutilation or permanent disability, it is punishable with 15 years of imprisonment, and if it unintentionally results in death, with life imprisonment (art. 11). 1 4 See www.cridem.org/C_Info.php?article=683398.