A/HRC/4/33/Add.3 page 13 39. The only prison where the Special Rapporteur did not receive allegations of ill-treatment is Juweidah (Female) Correction and Rehabilitation Centre, where he was satisfied with the commitment of the prison management to the well-being of the inmates. Nevertheless, the Special Rapporteur, after talking to women concerned, is highly critical of the current policy of taking females under the provisions of the Crime Prevention Law into “protective” detention because they are at risk of becoming victims of an honour crime. According to the Special Rapporteur, depriving innocent women and girls of their liberty for as long as 14 years can only be qualified as inhuman treatment, and is highly discriminatory. III. REASONS FOR THE WIDESPREAD PRACTICE OF TORTURE IN JORDAN A. State response to terrorism and threats to national security 40. The Special Rapporteur recognizes the significant challenges faced by the country given its strategic location in the Middle East region, and not least the prevailing sensitive security situation and the continued threat of terrorism. Notably, Jordan is a party to several international counter-terrorism conventions, which is a demonstration of its commitment to cooperate globally in the fight against terrorism. He fully recognizes the obligation of the Government to ensure the security of its people. However, he emphasizes that such measures must respect international human rights norms, in particular the absolute prohibition of torture, as contained in the Convention against Torture that Jordan has ratified. 41. The Special Rapporteur notes that GID is the pre-eminent institution entrusted with counter-terrorism activities in Jordan. Before and in the course of his mission he received a number of serious, consistent and credible allegations of torture by GID officials, in particular regarding suspected terrorists.8 42. On 25 June 2006, the Special Rapporteur visited the premises of the General Intelligence Directorate and was received by the Assistant Director, Brigadier Ziyad Sharidah, the Head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Mr. Ali Birjak, and the Legal Counsel, Mr. Yousef Masarwa. The Assistant Director presented him with information about the Department and the detention centre. The Special Rapporteur asked questions and requested several clarifications, and the deputy director and officers answered all his queries. The Special Rapporteur was provided, at his request, with a list of the names of all the prisoners being held at the Department’s detention centre, together with details of the charges against them and the date on which each person had been taken into detention. When he sought to visit the GID detention centre on 26 June 2006, in order to investigate allegations for himself, he was denied private interviews with detainees.9 43. The Special Rapporteur further notes that Jordan has repeatedly been mentioned in relation to the practice by the United States of America of “extraordinary renditions”. One case concerns two Yemeni nationals, Saleh Nasser Salim Ali and Muhammad Faraj Ahmed 8 See notes 10 and 13, below. 9 For a description of the incident, see the appendix below.