A/66/44 (15) The Committee notes with deep concern the wealth of documentation received about acts of abuse and sexual assaults on female refugees and asylum-seekers, allegedly committed by members of the State security forces and the Ecuadorian armed forces. The Committee has received information on women and girls, most of whom are of Colombian nationality, who are sexually assaulted or compelled to have sexual relations under threat of expulsion. The Committee draws the attention of the State party to recent cases in which Colombian asylum-seekers were returned in June 2010 and the summary expulsion of another in October 2010 before a decision had been handed down on his appeal (arts. 1–4 and 16). The State party should: (a) Ensure that thorough investigations are carried out into abuses committed against refugees and asylum-seekers, and in particular women and girls; (b) Ensure that such acts do not go unpunished and that the appropriate criminal, civil and administrative liabilities are determined; (c) Take the measures necessary to ensure that persons under its jurisdiction are fairly treated at all stages of the asylum procedure, and in particular that they receive an effective, impartial and independent review of the decision to expel, return or deport them; (d) Ensure compliance with and proper application by the police commissioner (the provincial police authority) and provincial migration police chiefs of the protocol applicable to deportation procedures and, failing this, hand down the appropriate penalties; (e) Take the legislative or other measures necessary to facilitate the integration of refugees and asylum-seekers; (f) Strengthen campaigns to raise awareness of the conflict in Colombia and the situation of persons who come to Ecuador in search of refuge, as well as awareness-raising measures that could help eliminate discriminatory or xenophobic attitudes. Impunity for acts of torture and ill-treatment (16) The Committee notes with concern that, according to the information provided by the State party in its periodic report (para. 181), the Internal Affairs Unit of the National Police has apparently submitted to the ordinary and police courts only 59 of the 299 complaints of alleged ill-treatment, torture or physical assault brought to its attention between May 2005 and December 2008. In addition, the State party’s periodic report indicates (paras. 164–166) that between 2003 and 2008 “only two trials for offences against individual freedom and torture have resulted in convictions”. The Committee is also concerned that, according to the information provided by the State party’s delegation, during the current year only five specific complaints have been lodged concerning illtreatment in the State party’s prison system, all of them relating to centres for youth offenders. The Committee considers that these data contrast with the persistent reports and wealth of documentation received from other sources concerning cases of torture and illtreatment of persons deprived of their liberty. At the same time, the Committee notes with interest Ministerial Decision No. 1435, issued by the Ministry of the Interior on 9 June 2010, instructing the Internal Affairs Unit that “even if the procedural deadline for investigation has expired, all cases involving human rights violations which are found to have been closed or filed without a proper investigation and/or those in which new elements come to light which potentially reveal civil, criminal or administrative liability on the part of members of the police forces shall be reopened and submitted to the appropriate authorities” (arts. 2, 12, 13 and 16). 36 GE.11-45568