A/HRC/4/40/Add.4 page 9 19. The National Police are responsible for: (a) Investigating offences: the DGIC acts under the authority of the Ministry of Security and the legal guidance of the Public Prosecution Service, during the judicial investigative process (art. 30.2); (b) Preventing, discouraging and combating all kinds of offences, restoring law and order (art. 37); and (c) Managing the penitentiaries and ensuring their security (art. 52). 5. The penitentiary system 20. All detention facilities (except military ones) are run by the police, which, with the DGIC, have holding cells for police custody and preventive detention ordered by the public prosecutor. 21. Judicially ordered preventive detention is carried out in regular prison facilities which are run by a separate directorate of the National Police, the Dirección General de Servicios Especiales Preventivos (DGSEP). Nonetheless, article 86 of the Constitution and article 191 of CPP provide that pretrial detainees shall be kept absolutely separate from convicted detainees, even though they may be held in the same facilities. 6. The Honduran Institute for Childhood and Family and juvenile detention 22. In view of the lack of legal protection for minors, Honduras adopted a Childhood and Adolescence Code, in 1996, which established the Honduran Institute for the Childhood and Family (IHNFA) as the government agency responsible for the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, and profoundly renewed the juvenile justice system. The age of criminal responsibility is set at 12 years of age, but until 18 offenders are to be dealt with exclusively in accordance with the Childhood Code (arts. 180 and 181). 7. The Human Rights Commissioner 23. The mandate of Human Rights Commissioner (CONADEH) was established in 1990 to guarantee the implementation of the human rights obligations contained in the Constitution and the international treaties to which Honduras is a party. The Commissioner, nominated by the legislature for a six-year term, is independent from all branches of the Government and enjoys ample powers to investigate alleged human rights violations and to report about them. 24. The Working Group noted with satisfaction that the Commissioner has unrestricted access to all military and civilian facilities and detention centres as well as unrestricted access to all administrative and judicial files, including those classified as secret. Besides, obstruction to the Commissioner’s functions has been criminalized. 25. The criminal procedure code provides also that DGIC shall inform the Commissioner without delay of any detention carried out (CPP, art. 280).