A/HRC/4/40/Add.2 page 2 Executive summary Responding to an open invitation to all thematic human rights mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights, a delegation of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention travelled to the Republic of Ecuador from 12 to 22 February 2006, and visited the capital and Azuay and Guayas provinces. Both in Quito and in the provincial capitals, Cuenca and Guayaquil, the delegation held talks with officials of the executive, legislative and judicial branches and with representatives of civil society. The Working Group visited 13 detention centres, including social rehabilitation centres (CRSs), pretrial detention centres (CDPs), juvenile detention centres and police stations. It held private meetings without witnesses with some 200 detainees. The Working Group expresses its thanks to the national and provincial authorities for the full cooperation that they extended to it as it carried out its mandate. The report describes the various institutions and standards that provide the institutional and legal framework for detention under criminal, administrative and immigration law. The Working Group recognizes the efforts made by the Government to resolve the crisis in the judiciary of late 2004 and April 2005, and the fact that the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Electoral Court and the Council of the Judiciary have since been restored and are functioning. It cites Cuenca as an exemplary case where the principles and standards enshrined in the Constitution and in international human rights instruments are observed in the work of magistrates and judges, prosecutors, members of the Office of the Ombudsman, directors of social rehabilitation centres and municipal authorities. The report welcomes the drafting and application of the new Children’s and Youth Code and the operation of the Virgilio Guerrero Youth Guidance Centre, in Quito. It also commends the authorities at the social rehabilitation centres on their flexibility in enabling detainees to have contact with their families. The report identifies as issues of concern the divergences between the principles and standards enshrined in the Constitution, the laws in force and observed practices. It points out that, while under the Constitution pretrial detention can in no case exceed one year, Act No. 2003-101 stipulates that detention under another status, detención en firme, must continue even after the period of pretrial detention has lapsed. This change in the law has caused prison overcrowding, with over 6,000 persons incarcerated awaiting judgement, often for years. The report also notes the elimination of measures to reduce sentences, which has given rise to tensions at the detention centres. Most of the people interviewed by the Working Group complained that they had been in pretrial detention without ever being brought before a judge, i.e., without ever having the opportunity to challenge their detention. The delegation observed that a large number of pregnant women and persons over 65 years of age were being held in pretrial detention. At some police stations and pretrial detention centres, women were being detained together with men, and in certain police cells women were being guarded by men. The Working Group also found some minors held in overcrowded police cells and in pretrial detention centres pending documentary proof of their age.