The Code of Criminal Procedure, contained in Decree No. 9-99E, published in the Official Gazette of 20 May 2000, establishes in article 282 the rules governing the detention or arrest of a person by members of the national police, specifying in paragraph 4 that they shall not commit or allow the use of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment, at the time of arrest or during the period of detention; in paragraph 5 that they shall not parade detainees before representatives of the media and shall protect their right to be considered and treated as innocent and their right to respect for their image; in paragraph 6 that they shall inform arrested or detained persons as clearly as possible, at the time of their detention, of the grounds for their arrest, and shall advise them of their rights: the right to inform a relative or person of their own choosing of their circumstances; the right to the assistance of counsel; the right to remain silent; the right not to testify against themselves, their spouse or partner, or against relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or the second degree of affinity; the right to be examined by a forensic physician or by another physician who can report on their physical condition and provide treatment if necessary; and, in general, all the rights of accused persons under article 101 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; the right to tell relatives and other acquaintances, at the time of detention, where they are being taken; and the right to have noted in a special register that shall be considered as a public document, the place, date and time of their detention, as authorized by the Minister of Security. In addition, the Office of the Public Defender, which is part of the judiciary, exercises ongoing monitoring and oversight of places where persons are detained, as a means of preventing torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, provides technical legal assistance to detainees, and ensures that the national police respect and observe the rights of persons deprived of their liberty. The integrated detention centres also have attorneys and forensic medical services attached to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in order to record detainees’ state of health. In addition, every integrated centre has a register of detainees, in which the arrival and departure of persons deprived of their liberty is recorded, albeit still by hand. With regard to the role of the Ministry of Defence (Armed Forces), and with reference to paragraph 35 of the report, in which the Subcommittee expresses its concern at the excessive use of force by military personnel in dispersing some demonstrations (clearing the bridge in Choloma on 14 August 2009), the blocking of roads to prevent humanitarian assistance reaching demonstrators, and arrests, this was done to maintain law and order in the context of the institutional crisis and the curfew. The armed forces of Honduras are aware that democracy in any country can be sustained only when there is a professional army and human rights are respected; in other words, there can be no democracy unless a country’s armed forces are professional, just as there can be no democracy in a country where human rights are violated. It is precisely this trinity of democracy, professional armed forces and respect for human rights that characterizes the armed forces of Honduras. The army’s professionalism enables it to operate at all times within the legal framework set forth in domestic legislation and international treaties. The armed forces of Honduras are a permanent, essentially professional, apolitical, subordinate and non-deliberative national institution. They act to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic, maintain peace and uphold the Constitution and the principles of universal suffrage and rotation of the office of President of the Republic. This is the basic reason why the armed forces are trained to carry out a range of constitutional tasks, including controlling demonstrations, setting up roadblocks, and custody of detainees, with reasonable use of force, and above all respecting citizens’ human rights. It is also important to clarify that, in these types of operations, the armed forces always act as backup to the national police, as provided by Executive Decree. We respectfully ask the Subcommittee to include the reports of and allegations by members of the military who, in the course of their duty, received gunshot wounds or were severely injured and beaten by demonstrators. A list of the relevant persons is attached, together with their photographs, since they are also human beings with the same rights. In order to remedy any alleged excessive use of force in the future, the armed forces are willing to request the appropriate bodies to carry out investigations into such cases, and will coordinate with the relevant authorities in the consideration of the Subcommittee’s recommendations. The Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is the authority responsible for bringing criminal proceedings, currently has no police investigation body under its control, since the Criminal Investigation Directorate (DNIC) is administratively part of the Ministry of Security and for operational purposes part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The National Congress is aware of this problem, and is currently discussing the establishment of a special investigative police force, to be attached to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. 3.Places of deprivation of liberty visited In this regard, the Ministry of Security agrees to implement, in conjunction with other justice officials, all the Subcommittee’s recommendations concerning the elaboration and implementation of a plan aimed at improving places of police detention and prisons, in order to meet the basic needs of persons deprived of their liberty, and to ensure that their sentence or detention is enforced in a fair manner. With regard to specific cases, the Supreme Court handed down judgements in 2006 on five habeas corpus applications submitted by the Office of the Special Attorney for Human Rights, two of them on behalf of all the children deprived of their liberty in the Renaciendo and El Carmen internment centres, and whereby the executive and the legislature were ordered to formulate and implement a public policy, in accordance with their constitutional mandate and international human rights instruments. While it is true that they were given a year to implement the judgement, and that the recommendations have not been implemented in their entirety, owing to the limited budget assigned, progress has been made in the following areas: (a) two units have been enlarged to reduce overcrowding; (b) bunks and sleeping mats have been installed; (c) the drinking water supply has been improved; (d) repairs have been made to the electrical system; and (e) equipment has been provided for the training workshops and classrooms. While the measures have not been implemented in their entirety, the above-mentioned steps constitute some progress; the Honduran