A/69/44
Committee deplores the existence of insalubrious infrastructures, with very small living
quarters and detainees occasionally being confined in containers without any light, the
malnutrition and dehydration of detainees, the appalling sanitary conditions that have led to
numerous deaths, and the lack of access to qualified medical personnel. It likewise deplores
the fact that there is no separation of men, women and minors or of those awaiting trial and
those who have been convicted within detention facilities, particularly those outside the
capital, as the delegation acknowledged during the dialogue. Lastly, the Committee regrets
the absence of any training of prison staff, who are generally “volunteers” who provide
their services to prisoners and their families for a fee. It also notes with concern that visits
are contingent on payments by families of sums of money amounting to as much as
100,000 Guinean francs, with the recurring threat that detainees may be tortured in the
event that their families do not pay (arts. 2, 11, 12 and 16).
The State party should increase its efforts to improve the material conditions of
detention in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Standard Minimum Rules
for the Treatment of Prisoners, which are currently under review, by:
(a)
Reducing the high rate of prison overpopulation, particularly by making
greater use of non-custodial measures, in accordance with the United Nations
Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules), adopted by
the General Assembly in resolution 45/110 of 14 December 1990;
(b)
Avoiding long periods of pretrial detention and ensuring that persons in
pretrial detention are provided with fair and speedy trials;
(c)
Ensuring that minors are separated from adults and women from men,
and that detainees are held separately from convicts;
(d)
Taking preventive measures to avoid the spread of infectious disease
caused by uncleanliness in places of detention and ensuring that detainees have
prompt access to qualified medical personnel;
(e)
Ensuring that prison staff are trained and that their wages are paid by
the State or the penal facilities, and not by prisoners or members of their families, and
taking all necessary measures to combat widespread corruption in the prison
environment.
Pending its ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture
and the implementation of the national preventive mechanism, the State party should
also establish a national monitoring system for all places of detention, and cooperate
with non-governmental organizations for this purpose, in particular by giving them
access to facilities for the deprivation of liberty.
Secret detention facilities
(15) The Committee takes note of the information provided by the delegation to the effect
that there are no longer any secret detention facilities in the State party. It is nevertheless
concerned at reports that some persons are still being held in unofficial detention centres,
including the military prison on Kassa Island, which was supposed to have been officially
closed in January 2010. The Committee is also concerned by the case of 33 persons arrested
on 24 and 25 September 2013 in Conakry who were transferred and secretly detained at the
Soronkony military camp for more than a week. These detainees were subjected to
numerous acts of torture, and one of them died. Despite the compensation of 50 million
Guinean francs paid to the victims, the Committee deplores that the application made by the
Prosecutor’s Office to the Dixinn Court of first instance is still awaiting the opening of
judicial proceedings against the perpetrators (arts. 2, 11 and 12).
GE.14-12596
105
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