E/CN.4/2002/77/Add.2 page 27 III. VISIT TO PLACES OF DETENTION A. Establishments visited 98. Given the relatively small size of the country (695 km2), the Working Group was able to visit virtually all its penitentiary establishments. 99. As far as pre-trial detention is concerned, the Group visited the Criminal Investigation Department’s detention unit, where individuals accused of serious crimes are held pending investigations; those charged with lesser offences are held for investigation purposes, as mentioned above, in district police stations, as the delegation saw when it went to visit the Manama and Al Muharraq district police headquarters. One of the detention units at Al Muharraq was being extensively renovated, with air conditioning being installed. The delegation also visited the men’s prisons in Al Quala, Al Muharraq and Jaw (the central prison); the women’s prison in Isa Town; the Isa Town rehabilitation centres for boys and girls; and the illegal aliens detention centre at Al Hidd. Lastly, it visited the Manama and Al Muharraq central police headquarters and Manama police station. 100. The delegation was happy to have the full cooperation of the Interior Ministry authorities and those responsible for the various places of detention throughout its visit. It was able to go where it wished in all the establishments it visited and had frank, open exchanges with the officials designated to assist it, who provided it with all the information and statistics it needed to accomplish its mission, including access to record office registers. 101. Thanks to instructions previously circulated by the authorities, all the fifty or so interviews the delegation had with detainees in the various categories took place exactly as required by the Working Group’s methods of work (no prison staff present, free choice of which detainees to talk to and where to talk to them, unrestricted access to the entire premises and outbuildings, including administrative offices, and access to all registers). B. Maintenance of the record office registers 102. The record office of every establishment produced, upon request, correctly kept registers comprising a daily table (sometimes a wall chart) indicating the daily movements and strength of the inmate population, and a general register detailing each detainee (identity, nationality, address, date and time of arrival, registration number, nature and date of offence, social status, authority ordering detention, signature of the duty officer upon the detainee’s arrival and departure, together with the name of the authority ordering release). These registers are now kept on computer at the Criminal Investigations Department. The computerized system is supposed to extend progressively to encompass all the penitentiary establishments in Bahrain. IV. POSITIVE DEVELOPMENTS REGARDING THE STATUS OF WOMEN 103. In view of Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/51, “Integrating the human rights of women throughout the United Nations system”, the Working Group delegation raised this topic in its interviews with the authorities and arranged to meet representatives of Bahraini women’s associations so that it could learn what specific problems women faced and how

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