9. Legislative power in Mauritania is vested in a bicameral parliament that comprises an Upper Chamber, the Senate, and a Lower Chamber, the National Assembly. Deputies of the National Assembly are elected for a five-year renewable term through direct universal suffrage while Senators are elected for a six-year renewable term by indirect universal suffrage and they represent local authorities of the Republic. 10. Mauritania has a decentralized and devolved administrative organization. The territorial organization has several administrative levels divided into thirteen (13) Wilayas, fifty four (54) Moughataas and two hundred and sixteen (216) municipalities. The division of powers between different levels of government is organized in such a way that local communities and government work together for political, economic and social development. 11. The Mauritanian judiciary is made up of first degree and second degree courts. First instance courts are found at the level of the Moughataas and Wilayas and second degree courts comprising three Courts of Appeal in Nouakchott, Nouadhibou and Kiffa. The Supreme Court of Justice, made up of five chambers, is the highest court of the land. The Constitutional Council determines the constitutionality of laws and is made up of six judges. The Constitution establishes the principle of the independence of the Judiciary and entrusts the task of guaranteeing this independence to the President of the Republic who is assisted in the task by the Judicial Service Commission. V. GENERAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK ON THE PROHIBITION OF TORTURE AND OTHER FORMS OF ILL-TREATMENT 12. The 1991 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania which was amended in 2006, and again in February 2012 absolutely prohibits slavery and all forms of degradation of the human being including torture, and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and considers these as crimes against humanity. 13. Article 1 of Ordinance No 2007.36 on the Revision of Ordinance No 83.63 Instituting the Criminal Procedure Code provides among other things that confessions obtained by torture, violence or coercion are inadmissible. 14. Article 15 of Law No 2010.07 of 20 January 2010 on the Status of the National Police provides that staff of the National Police have an obligation to refrain from any act likely to prejudice individual and collective freedoms, except as provided by law, and in general any cruel or degrading treatment constitutes a violation of human rights. 8|Page