A/HRC/7/3/Add.4 page 22 Impunity (a) The absolute prohibition of torture should be considered for incorporation into the Constitution; (b) The highest authorities, particularly those responsible for law enforcement activities, should declare unambiguously that the culture of impunity must end and that torture and ill-treatment by public officials will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted. The message should be spread that torture is an extremely serious crime which will be punished with severe (long-term) prison sentences; (c) The crime of torture should be defined as a matter of priority in accordance with article 1 of the Convention against Torture, with penalties commensurate with the gravity of torture; (d) An effective and independent complaints system for torture and abuse leading to criminal investigations should be established, similar to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission; Safeguards (e) arrest; The right to legal counsel should be legally guaranteed from the moment of (f) The power to order or approve arrest and supervision of the police and detention facilities should be vested solely with independent courts; (g) All detainees should be effectively guaranteed the ability to challenge the lawfulness of the detention before an independent court, e.g. through habeas corpus proceedings; (h) Judges and prosecutors should routinely ask persons brought from police custody how they have been treated and, even in the absence of a formal complaint from the defendant, order an independent medical examination in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol; (i) Those legally arrested should not be held in facilities under the control of their interrogators or investigators for more than the time required by law to obtain a judicial warrant of pretrial detention, which should not exceed 48 hours. After this period they should be transferred to a pretrial facility under a different authority, where no further unsupervised contact with the interrogators or investigators should be permitted; (j) The maintenance of custody registers should be scrupulously ensured, including recording of the time and place of arrest, the identity of the personnel, the actual place of detention, the state of health upon arrival of the person at the detention centre, the time at which the family and a lawyer were contacted and visited the detainee, and information on compulsory medical examinations upon being brought to a detention centre and upon transfer;