CAT/OP/27/1 and male prison staff. The Subcommittee has come across situations where female detainees were encouraged to prostitute themselves. The Subcommittee has also encountered cases of sexual violence between patients and the inappropriate use of force by the staff of a psychiatric hospital, as well as cases in which outsiders had been able to enter a hospital and abuse patients because of a lack of surveillance of the hospital perimeter. 26. In some cases, the measures supposedly taken to protect women who have suffered from acts of violence and have reported them while deprived of their liberty can lead to further violations of their rights as, for example, when women are placed in isolation in the name of such “protective measures”. 27. In some States parties, women prisoners subject to searches are required to undress in public, to squat and to undergo intimate body searches, including invasive probing of the vagina and anus. Such degrading practices are also carried out on women visitors to detention facilities, sometimes by male guard s. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, making use of the jurisprudential and legal criterion that prevails in the realms of both international criminal law and comparative criminal law, considers that rape does not necessarily entail non-consensual sexual relations involving vaginal penetration, as has traditionally been thought. The Court has stated the following: “Sexual rape must also be understood as [an] act of vaginal or anal penetration, without the victim’s consent, through the use of other parts of the aggressor’s body or objects ...”. 14 The Subcommittee agrees that vaginal and anal inspections can constitute sexual violence and must therefore be prohibited. 15 B. Health 28. Women’s right to health is a critical issue in places of deprivatio n of liberty, particularly in mixed facilities, because there are often no female health professionals available to provide adequate care and follow-up. In some instances, female doctors visit prisons between once a week and once a month to provide women i nmates with health care, which is not enough. There are often no gynaecologists or obstetricians available in prison facilities to provide timely and appropriate care to pregnant or breastfeeding women or, more generally, to address the sexual and reproduc tive health needs of female inmates. The fact that pregnant or breastfeeding women require a special diet is generally not taken into account. In some prisons, sanitary pads are not made available free of charge and have to be provided by relatives and fri ends or sometimes by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), religious groups or volunteers. 29. In men’s prisons that have been adapted to accommodate an area or wing for women, female inmates have limited access to water, since sanitation facilities are located in areas reserved for men. As a result, women either have to rely on security personnel to bring hoses to fill water containers or they have to fill the containers themselves but may do so only at certain times so as to avoid contact with male inmates. 30. During some visits, the Subcommittee has heard reports of suicides and suicide attempts by women deprived of their liberty. In many instances, these kinds of cases are linked to such factors as harsh conditions of imprisonment, severely limited tim e spent outside of the cells, few or no opportunities for work, education or recreation 14 15 GE.16-00603 Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Miguel Castro Castro Prison v. Peru criminal case, judgement of 25 November 2006, para. 310. See the Subcommittee’s reports on its visits to Argentina (CAT/OP/ARG/1, para. 72) and Brazil (CAT/OP/BRA/1, para. 119). 5/9