CAT/C/39/2 page 49 203. The Constitution of October 5 1988 enshrined repudiation to torture in several of its provisions, by stipulating that “no one shall be subject to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment” (art. 5, III) and that the law will consider the practice of torture as a non-bailable crime, to which no pardon or amnesty is admissible, and for which the principal agent, the executors and those who did not prevent it although in a position to do so are responsible (art. 5, XLIII). Cruel punishment is also forbidden (art. 5, XLIV, e). 204. For Brazil, the priority of the prevention of and the struggle against torture stems both from its character of serious violation of fundamental rights and, unfortunately, from the historic circumstances that affected the country during the period of dictatorship, between 1965 and 1985. 205. At the time, especial after the edition of Institutional Act no. 5 (AI-5), in December 1968, rights and assurances essential to the Democratic State of Right were abolished and the practice of arbitrary arrests, followed by torture and ill treatment by official agents became commonplace. Opponents of the authoritarian regime were persecuted and violently punished, often by death. 206. The fight against dictatorship was thus characterized by torture, so much so that to fight against it today is emblematic for the Brazilian Government and society, standing for the consolidation of the democratic regime. 207. In this connection, beside the above-mentioned conventions and constitutional guarantees, the Brazilian Government launched, in late 2005, an integrated action plan against torture, whose central axis are the thirty recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on Torture in his last visit to Brazil. The Plan aims at joining the three Powers and organized civil society in the prevention of and struggle against practices of torture. 208. Until March 2007 eight states of the Federation had adhered to the Plan. Among measures proposed to curb torture is the video recording of interrogations and frequent surprise visits to penitentiaries and police precincts by independent committees and organizations the creation of specialized groups of public prosecutors to combat torture and to develop a permanent national anti-torture campaign in the media. I. ON THE VISIT TO BRAZIL OF THE COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE UNDER ARTICLE 20 OF THE CONVENTION 209. The starting point of the investigation procedure by the Committee Against Torture under article 20 of the Convention was the information transmitted to CAT by non-governmental organizations in November 2002. It should be mentioned that according to paragraphs 3 and 45 of the Report of the Committee, that information was related to alleged practice of torture in but one state of the Federation. A part of such information had already been transmitted to the Rapporteur of the Human Rights Commission on the Question of Torture, Sir Nigel Rodley, on the occasion of his visit to Brazil in 2000. 210. The information received by the Committee was transmitted to Brazil in November 2002. The process of government change in the Federal and State levels at that time hampered a prompt response to the written information and queries sent by CAT. On the other hand, the