A/HRC/13/39/Add.5 established bodies with effective powers of criminal investigation which at the same time are fully independent from the law enforcement officers subject to their investigations. Despite the obligation to take all legislative, administrative, political and other measures necessary to prevent torture, including prompt access of detainees to lawyers, judges, doctors and families, audio- or video-taping of interrogations, the prohibition of using confessions extracted by torture before courts, or regular inspections of all places of detention and interrogation by independent bodies, most of the roughly 10 million detainees around the world can only dream of such measures. 256. In most countries, conditions of detention in police custody, pre-trial detention and other detention facilities, sometimes also in correctional institutions for convicted prisoners, amount to inhuman or degrading treatment. Detainees, whether deprived of their liberty for justified or less justified reasons, belong to the most vulnerable and forgotten sectors of our societies. In practice, they are deprived of most of their liberties and human rights, including the right to an adequate standard of living, to food, water, health, education and privacy. 257. Among detainees, certain groups are subject to double discrimination and vulnerability, including aliens and members of minorities, women, children, the elderly, the sick, persons with disabilities, drug addicts, gays, lesbians and transgender persons. 258. Other forms of widespread cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment include corporal punishment and excessive police violence during arrest, in reacting to demonstrations and political gatherings, combating riots and similar law enforcement activities. States also do not live up to the standard of due diligence required by the obligation not to commit torture by acquiescence, in combating torture and ill-treatment by private actors, including harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation and honour crimes, domestic violence and trafficking in human beings, above all of women and children. 259. In building upon the General Recommendations developed by my distinguished predecessor, Theo van Boven, in 2003, I wish to particularly stress the following recommendations: (a) All States should ratify the United Nations Convention against Torture and fully implement its provisions. In particular, they shall criminalize torture, as defined in article 1, with appropriate sanctions taking into account the gravity of the crime of torture; investigate all allegations and suspicions of torture by independent and effective “police-police” bodies; bring perpetrators of torture to justice under the various forms of criminal jurisdiction mentioned in article 5; provide victims of torture with an effective remedy and adequate reparation for the harm suffered, above all medical, psychological and other forms of rehabilitation; and take all measures necessary to prevent torture, including prompt access of all detainees to lawyers, judges, doctors and their families; (b) All States should ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and establish effective NPMs with the task of carrying out preventive visits to all places of detention. The latter should be fully independent bodies with a pluralistic composition and equipped with the financial and personnel resources necessary to conduct regular and ad hoc visits to all places of detention (police lock-ups, prisons, pre-trial detention facilities, psychiatric hospitals and special detention facilities for women, children, migrants, drug addicts etc.); (c) All States and the international community are requested to provide the resources necessary to develop national systems for the administration of justice that provide all human beings with equal access to justice and the right to a fair trial at all 70