disappeared persons, whether there were procedures in Spain for investigations into deaths in custody or detention that met the criteria adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. 157. In reply, the representative said that Spain was working to abolish the death penalty and that the instrument of ratifioation to the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant had been submitted to the Cartes. However, Spain would enter a reservation to the effect that the death penalty could be applied in extremely serious cases in wartime. The death penalty was not mandatory for the offences listed in the Code of Military Justice and could be imposed only during a genuine and formally declared war with a foreign Power, The problem of disappearances for political reasons was unknown in Spain. Since the establishment of democracy in Spain only a general law detainee had disappeared and those respoasible..had been brought to court. 158. Concerning that issue, member6 of the Committee wished to know whether there had been any complaints during the period under review of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners or detainees and, if 60~ whether there had been any convictions on such charges. They also wished to have information on detention in places other than prisons or for reasons other than criminal offences (for exeinple, in police princincts or psychiatric institutions), as well as on the matters covered in the 1990 report by the People’s Advocate. 159. In addition, members of the CommitL-eewished to know whether the Spanish Government intended to speed up the legal process in criminal ca6es; whether there was a link between incommunicado detention and the risk of ill-treatment of detainees accused of terrorist actst how the “prison code”, which allowed inmates to beat up child sex offenders , was to be understood: what was the Practice relating to the employment of convictsl what regulations governed the freguency of interrogations and whether a doctor was involved; under what circumstances an oral or written confession would be considered to be voluntary; whether the courts could convict a defendant on the strength of a confession; whether it was incumbent on the prosecution to prove that the evidence had not been obtained uy irregular meansi what measures were taken to educate the police ebout human rights) whether people suffering from ALDS could be hospitalised on the grounds that they were a danger to public healthi why the right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without one’s free consent wns not guaranteed) whether the Spanish authorities intended to draw up regulations governing in vitro fertilisation and human embryo research; and lastly, why the talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross about conditions of detention had been broken off. lG0. In reply, the representative said that the only complaint concerning prisoners or other detainee6 had been made by members of the terrorist group GRAPO, who had been force-fed while on hunger strike. The Government had been able to prove before the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that their action had in no way violated any of the fundamental rights of the hunger strikers. In some cases, members of the police force and the (iuardia had been convicted on charges of ill-treatment but there had been no convictions relating to cases of torture. Conditions of detention were governed by the provisions of the -39-