A/HRC/4/40/Add.2 page 5 Introduction 1. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which was established pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1991/42 and whose mandate was conferred under decision 2006/102 of the Human Rights Council, visited the Republic of Ecuador from 12 to 22 February 2006, at the invitation of the Government. The delegation was led by the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group, Ms. Leïla Zerrougui, and included Ms. Soledad Villagra de Biedermann, a member of the Working Group. The delegation was accompanied by the secretary of the Working Group, an official from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and two interpreters from the United Nations Office at Geneva. 2. The delegation visited the capital, Quito, and the cities of Cuenca and Guayaquil. During the visit it held meetings with various national and provincial authorities, members of the National Congress and the judiciary, officials of self-governing bodies, representatives of civil society organizations, members of the academic community and others. The Working Group visited 13 detention centres and held private interviews without witnesses with some 200 detainees. 3. The Working Group would like to express its thanks to the Government of Ecuador and the governments of the provinces of Azuay, Guayas and Pichincha, to the local office of the United Nations Development Programme, which helped to prepare the programme and provided logistic support for the visit, and also to Ecuadorian non-governmental organizations. I. PROGRAMME OF THE VISIT 4. The Working Group visited the following places of detention: in Quito, the pretrial detention centre, Social Rehabilitation Centre No. 1 (formerly García Moreno Prison), Social Rehabilitation Centre No. 4, the Women’s Social Rehabilitation Centre, the Virgilio Guerrero Youth Guidance Centre and the cells of the Judicial Police; in Guayaquil, the pretrial detention centre, the cells of the Judicial Police and the Narcotics Squad; the Metropolitan Police station and the cells holding police officers under criminal investigation; and in Cuenca, the pretrial detention centre and the Azuay Social Rehabilitation Centre. 5. The Working Group benefited from full cooperation and complete transparency on the part of the authorities, both national and provincial, at all levels, with the sole exception of the Coastal Prison in Guayaquil, which it was unable to visit: the authorities reported that it was unsafe. The Working Group spoke with all the persons with whom it wished to hold interviews: detainees in pretrial detention, sentenced prisoners, representatives of detainees, wives, minors, police officers in detention, persons held in disciplinary cells - all of whom were selected at random. It also held a meeting with former President Lucio Gutiérrez at Social Rehabilitation Centre No. 4 in Quito, and with former President Gustavo Noboa, who was under house arrest in Guayaquil at the time of the visit. Both were released by the Supreme Court a short time after the visit.