A/HRC/7/3/Add.2 page 67 institutions such as hospitals. This issue is also being addressed in the ongoing police reforms. 313. Recommendation (k) stated: Magistrates and judges, like prosecutors, should always ask a person brought from police custody how they have been treated and be particularly attentive to their condition; 314. Recommendation (l) stated: The system for appointment of the judiciary should be reviewed with a view to ensuring genuine independence of the judiciary. The Government is urged to consider inviting the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to visit the country; 315. Recommendation (m) stated: A general opening up of the prison system is required, in a way that would welcome rather than deter access by civil society. In particular, impediments to access by lawyers, doctors and family members should be removed. Civil society should be brought in as partners to help humanize an under-resourced and overpopulated system. Once this happens, the international community should also be willing to lend assistance, for example, by helping provide education and vocational training; 316. Recommendation (n) stated: The judiciary should be more diligent in visiting and inspecting prisons and more circumspect in its readiness to remand suspects or sentence offenders to deprivation of liberty. This applies particularly in respect of non-violent, first-time, suspected offenders and juveniles; 317. The Government informed that in the area of judicial reforms, it has passed the Community Service Orders Act to promote non-custodial sentences for petty offenders. This has had a positive impact in the prevention of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in prison and detention facilities, as persons who would otherwise be serving custodial sentences are now engaged in community service projects from their homes. 318. Recommendation (o) stated: Corporal punishment as a criminal penalty should be abolished at once. The same applies, despite its obsolescence, to corporal punishment for prison disciplinary offences; 319. Recommendation (p) stated: The Government is invited to consider favourably making the declaration contemplated in article 22 of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, whereby the Committee against Torture could receive individual complaints from persons alleging non-compliance with the terms of the Convention. It is also invited similarly to consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so that the Human Rights Committee could receive individual complaints;