facility. Detainees continue to be held incommunicado during this period in many cases.”43 19. In another participating State from the South Caucasus region, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) found that, contrary to the country’s laws, access to a lawyer was systematically delayed until after suspects or accused persons had confessed, and that the use of torture or other ill-treatment to extract confessions remained widespread.44 The Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nigel Rodley, called for a global prohibition of incommunicado detention, due to its links with torture: “Torture is most frequently practised during incommunicado detention. Incommunicado detention should be made illegal.”45 Numerous other UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture, as well as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, have also called for the practice to be abolished and criminalized.46 The Working Group held that no jurisdiction could allow for incommunicado detention where no access to counsel or relatives was granted and no judicial control over the deprivation of liberty was exercised; in short, where no legal procedure established by law whatsoever was followed.”47 Availability of adequate investigation technologies and means 20. There may be several different factors that influence whether police or other investigative bodies are incentivized to pursue or rely on confessions as the main form of evidence. These include entrenched practices in some legal systems of relying on confessions, the lack of training in alternative forms of investigation, and the lack of resources and tools to carry out other forms of investigation. Moving away from a reliance on confessions requires access to other forms of evidence 43 44 45 46 47 Civil Society Coalition against Torture and impunity in Tajikistan, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, OMCT, IPHR, “Joint NGO submission to the Committee against Torture ahead of the consideration of Tajikistan’s Third Periodic Report at the 63rd session in April/May 2018”, p.12. Report to the Azerbaijani Government on the visit to Azerbaijan carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) from 23 to 30 October 2017 CPT/Inf (2018) 37. Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1992/32E/CN.4/1995/34, 12 January 1995, p.173 para. d). Statement by Mr. Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Seventy-third session of the General Assembly Item 74(a) (2018); Statement by Mr. Juan Méndez, Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Keynote address “The case against backsliding on the torture ban” (2015); Manfred Nowak, Joint Study on Global Practices in relation to secret detention, (20 May 2010); UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Opinion No. 12/2006 (A/HRC/4/40/ Add.1), p. 63. Manfred Nowak, ibid., para. 20. 19