A/68/295 information about the custody and whereabouts of persons, including transfers, available promptly to the detainee, his or her relatives and his or her counsel (Body of Principles, principle 12), as well as registration of information on the circumstances of death of prisoners and the location of their remains (International Convention on Enforced Disappearance, art. 17 (3) (g)). Furthermore, Rule 7 (2), which obliges prison authorities to not receive a person in an institution without a valid commitment order, should be revised. The detainee should be admitted into a lawful place of detention and the person in charge of that institution is responsible for admitting the person concerned and immediately notifying a judge. 44. It is equally important that interrogation rules, instructions, methods and practices be kept under systematic review with a view to preventing cases of torture and other ill-treatment (Convention against Torture, art. 11). The Special Rapporteur recalls that counsel must be present during all interview interrogations, in their entirety. The duration of interrogations and the intervals between interrogations must be recorded (preferably with a video recorder but at least with an audio recorder) and the identity of the officials conducting the interrogation should be registered (Body of Principles, principle 23). Individuals arrested legally should not be held in facilities under the control of their interrogators or investigators for more time than is required by law to obtain a judicial warrant of pretrial detention, which, in any case, should not exceed a period of 48 hours. They should be transferred to a pretrial facility under a different authority at once, after which no further unsupervised contact with the interrogators or investigators should be permitted (see E/CN.4/2003/68, para. 26 (g)). Conditions of detention 45. The Special Rapporteur has noted that inappropriate conditions of detention, including conditions characterized by structural deprivation and the non-fulfilment of rights necessary for a humane and dignified existence, amount to a systematic practice of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (E/CN.4/2004/56, para. 41, and A/HRC/13/39/Add.5, para. 230). A considerable amount of jurisprudence at the international and regional levels has also consistently found that conditions of detention can amount to inhuman and degrading treatment. Overcrowding, lack of ventilation, poor sanitary conditions, prolonged isolation, the holding of suspects incommunicado, frequent transfers from one prison to another, the non-separation of different categories of prisoners, the holding of persons with disabilities in environments that include areas inaccessible to them and the holding of persons without means of communication could constitute or lead to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or torture. The Rules could benefit from adhering to the requirement established by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regarding services in places of detention (see general comment No. 19 of the Committee, especially paras. 1, 9, 31 and 46). 46. While recognizing that penitentiary systems are almost universally severely underfunded and suffer from decades of accumulated problems, the Special Rapporteur recalls that a lack of financial resources cannot be an excuse for not refurbishing detention facilities, purchasing basic supplies and providing food 5 and medical treatment, among other things. The Rules should stress that treating all __________________ 5 13-42285 In some countries, e.g. Canada and the Dominican Republic, prison staff are served the same food given to persons deprived of liberty. 11/23

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