E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2 page 32 incumbent to “exercise the functions of judicial police and to determine criminal offences, except for military ones”.5 The military police, a uniformed force defined as an “auxiliary force of the army”, is charged with carrying out the functions of public policing, including guarding the external security of prisons, and with preserving public order.6 A. Arrest 92. The Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil of 5 October 1988 provides that “no one shall be arrested unless in flagrante delicto or by a written and justified order of a competent judicial authority (...)”7 and that “the arrest of any person, as well as the place where he/she is being held, shall be immediately informed to the competent judge and to his/her family or to the person indicated by him/her.”8 In case of arrest in flagrante, the jurisprudence is said to have established that a period of up to 24 hours’ detention before a provisional detention warrant is issued by a judge is a reasonable one. It must be noted that article 310 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that the judge shall hear the public prosecutor on the arrest. According to the information received, in practice, judges and public prosecutors are informed by the police of any arrest through a written communication. There is no legal provision which ensures that a person under arrest is seen by either a magistrate or a public prosecutor within the first hours of his/her detention. The Special Rapporteur nevertheless notes that many, including public, prosecutors believed that a person arrested in flagrante must be brought before a judge within 24 hours of his/her arrest. It was also reported that under the current law, unless the arrest is done in flagrante, a public prosecutor will be informed of an arrest only some 30 days later. The Constitution provides the right to habeas corpus when a person “suffers or runs the risk of suffering violence or coercion against his/her freedom of movement, due to illegal actions or abuse of power.”9 Anyone has locus standi to file a petition of habeas corpus in one’s own defence, or to defend anyone else. 93. As the military police have the constitutional competence for public policing, arrests in flagrante are usually carried out by the military police, although the civil police were also reported sometimes to act in such occasions.10 Arresting officers are required to bring the suspect directly to a police precinct (delegacia), where the processing takes place. Precincts are run by the civil police and headed by a delegado, who is required by law to hold a law degree. At this point, the military police have no further participation in the related criminal investigation. The Constitution provides that “the arrested individual shall be informed of his/her rights ... and shall be ensured of assistance by his/her family and a lawyer”.11 There appears nevertheless to be no specific legal provision regarding the period of time after which a person detained has access to a lawyer. 94. With respect to legal assistance, article 5 (LXXIV) of the Constitution provides that “the State shall provide full and free of charge legal assistance to all who prove insufficiency of funds”. It is believed by NGOs and lawyers whom the Special Rapporteur met that 95 per cent of detainees are eligible for such assistance. The Public Defender’s Office (Defensoria Pública) is charged with providing legal assistance to persons of limited resources, who are believed to be the overwhelming majority of persons under arrest.12 Nonetheless, in many states, such offices have not been established and almost everywhere they exist they are said to be understaffed. As a result, other bodies, such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo, provide legal services to criminal defendants. In other cases, lawyers are named on a rotating pro bono publico basis