E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2 page 6 ratifying the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so that the Human Rights Committee can receive individual complaints. Brazil Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur in the report of his visit to Brazil in August and September 2000 (E/CN.4/2001/66/Add.2, para. 169) 22. Recommendation (a) stated: First and foremost, the top federal and State political leaders need to declare unambiguously that they will not tolerate torture or other ill-treatment by public officials, especially military and civil police, prison personnel and personnel of juvenile institutions. They need to take vigorous measures to make such declarations credible and make clear that the culture of impunity must end. In addition to giving effect to the subsequent recommendations, these measures should include unannounced visits by them to police stations, pre-trial detention facilities and penitentiaries known for the prevalence of such treatment. In particular, they should hold those in charge of places of detention at the time abuses are perpetrated personally responsible for the abuses. Such responsibility should include, but not be limited to, the practice obtaining in some localities, according to which the occurrence of abuses during their period of authority will adversely affect promotion prospects and indeed should involve removal from office, which removal should not consist merely of transfer to another institution. 23. According to information received from NGOs, public declarations condemning torture made by high profile political leaders, other than human rights secretaries, are extremely rare. The Federal Government launched a national campaign against torture after the Special Rapporteur’s visit. However, the campaign failed to address the fundamental causes of the crime and did not seek to improve mechanisms for safe and effective reporting and prosecution of cases. Instead the Government focused on the creation of a very short and limited publicity campaign and the creation of a telephone hotline, to encourage anonymous denunciations, and with a view to collecting data. The administration and running of the “SOS Torture” line has been carried out by NGOs, who receive government funding for doing so. It is reported that the data collected by the hotline is not a reliable indicator of levels of torture in a given place, as higher numbers of calls may result from a variety of factors, such as higher awareness of the existence of the hotline or better access to telephones. Given the anonymous nature of the hotline it did not contribute to the effective reporting or investigation of alleged cases of torture. 24. Recommendation (b) stated: The abuse by the police of the power of arrest without judicial order in flagrante delicto cases to arrest any suspect should be brought to an immediate end. 25. Recommendation (c) stated: Those legitimately arrested in flagrante delicto should not be held in police stations beyond the 24-hour period required for obtaining a judicial warrant of temporary detention. Overcrowding in remand prisons can be no justification for leaving detainees in the hands of the police (where, in any event, the conditions of overcrowding appear substantially to exceed those even in some of the most overcrowded prisons).