E/CN.4/2005/62/Add.2 page 19 eliminated by opening up, on a temporary basis, indoor stadiums or other comparable public places, and transferring the excess population to such places. 96. The Government reported that on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice, in August 2001, the Government approved the federal special programme on reform of the penal correction system of the Ministry of Justice for the period 2002-2006, the aim of which is to decriminalize society, increase the types of punishment that can serve as alternatives to deprivation of liberty, reduce the number of citizens in places of deprivation of liberty and improve the conditions of their detention. The implementation of the programme, together with other measures, made it possible to speed up the solution of the most urgent problems and to enforce the provisions of Russian legislation and international standards concerning the observance of human rights in penal institutions. On 9 March 2001, the federal act on amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), the Penal Enforcement Code of the Russian Federation and other legislation of the Russian Federation was adopted. The aforementioned act resulted in a substantial reduction in the practice of using remand in custody as a preventive measure. Today, remand in custody is chiefly reserved for persons who have committed serious or particularly serious offences. Persons who have committed minor or less serious offences are subjected to this form of punishment only in exceptional cases. Other forms of procedural coercion, such as bail and recognizance, are being more widely used; minors are entrusted to the supervision of their relatives, guardians or other trustworthy persons. The time limits for holding defendants in custody during trial have been reduced. Previous legislation did not establish any time limits, and defendants were held in custody for unjustifiably long periods. On 31 October 2002, Federal Act No. 133-FZ on amendments and additions to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR and the Code of the Russian Federation of Administrative Offences was adopted. The Act amended the structure of article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and differentiated criminal liability for various types of theft, taking into consideration the level of danger that such offences pose to society. The introduction of many amendments to legislation, the entry into force on 1 July 2002 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, as well as other measures of an organizational and legal nature, made it possible, during the period from May 2000 to the present, to reduce the number of persons held in places of deprivation of liberty by 266,000 (24.4 per cent), including the reduction by 133,000 (48.7 per cent) of persons held in remand centres. On average, overcrowding in remand centres throughout the Russian penal correction system has been reduced more than twofold - to the centres’ established capacity. Compared with the situation in 1995, the number of inmates in remand centres has been reduced by 146,800. As at 1 August 2004, 137,900 persons were being held in remand centres and premises serving as remand centres; the capacity of such centres and premises is 142,000. In its Decision No. 5 of 10 October 2003 on the application by courts of general jurisdiction of the principles and norms of international law and international treaties to which the Russian Federation is a party, the Supreme Court recommended that courts, when deciding whether or not to place accused persons in custody as a preventive measure, or to extend their remand in custody, or when considering complaints from accused persons concerning unlawful acts committed by officials of preliminary investigation bodies, should consider the need to observe the rights of persons held in custody that are contained in articles 3, 5, 6 and 13 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.