15. Article 10 of Ordinance n° 2005.015 of 5 December 2005, on the judicial protection of the child states provides that subjecting a child to torture or barbaric acts is punishable by six years' imprisonment. 16. Law No. 2007.048 of 03 September 2007 criminalizes slavery and slavery-like practices while Law No. 025/2003 of 17 July 2007 deals with the suppression of trafficking in persons. 17. The new Criminal Procedure Code introduced in April 2007 provides guarantees against the use of torture and, in its introductory article, states that: “confessions obtained by torture, violence or force shall be invalid”. 18. Article 58 of the CPP states: “All persons deprived of their liberty through arrest or detention, or any other form of deprivation of liberty, must be treated with respect for human dignity. It is forbidden to subject them to psychological or physical ill-treatment or to hold them in any place other than one provided for by law for that purpose”. 19. The CPP however introduces a long period of pretrial detention for certain category of offences different from the 48 hours period that applies to ordinary crimes. Article 57 of the CPP states: “For offences against internal or external security of the State, the detention period is five days from arrest, which may be extended by written authorization of the public prosecutor for an identical period, provided it does not exceed a total of 15 days from the day on which the person concerned was arrested. At the end of these periods, the detained person must, without fail, be released or brought before the public prosecutor, unless an arrest warrant has been issued in the meantime. 20. The CPP also affords the family the opportunity to communicate with the detained person as soon as she/he is arrested. Article 58 of the CPP states: “Police officers who take a person into police custody are obliged to so inform the spouse, or immediate ascendant or descendant as soon as possible and also to inform that person of the opportunity to communicate with his or her spouse, or one of his or her immediate relatives. This communication, which takes place in the presence of a police officer, may not exceed thirty minutes”. 21. Article 60 of the CPP states that: “Once a person in police custody has been brought before the competent judge, s/he is entitled to a medical examination, either at his or her request or at the request of a member of his or her family.” VI. REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES RATIFIED BY MAURITANIA a) African Instruments  The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights; 9|Page