CAT/C/CR/31/6 page 4 7. The Committee is also concerned about: (a) The jurisdiction given to military courts to try civilians for offences against the laws on military weapons and weapons assimilated thereto; (b) The absence of legislation banning female genital mutilation; (c) The fact that the Criminal Code permits the exemption from punishment of a rapist if he subsequently marries the victim. Recommendations 8. The Committee urges the State party to take all necessary measures to end the practice of torture on its territory. It recommends that the State party should: (a) Immediately end torture in police and gendarmerie stations and prisons. It should ensure effective supervision of these places of detention, permit NGOs to visit them and give more authority to the prison supervision commissions. The National Committee on Human Rights and Freedoms and public prosecutors should pay more frequent visits to all places of detention; (b) Immediately launch an independent investigation into the deaths at Douala central prison since the beginning of the year and bring those responsible to justice; (c) Adopt urgent measures to reduce overcrowding in prisons. The State party should enact a law establishing the maximum duration of pre-trial detention, and consider immediately releasing offenders or suspects imprisoned for the first time for petty offences, particularly if they are under 18 years of age; such persons should not be imprisoned until the problem of prison overcrowding has been solved; (d) Guarantee free medical care in prisons, ensure the right of prisoners to adequate food in practice, and effectively separate men and women; (e) Immediately end the torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention perpetrated under the responsibility of the traditional chiefs in the north. The Committee notes the delegation’s assurance that proceedings have been brought in such cases and urges the State party to step up its efforts in this direction. The peoples concerned should be duly informed of their rights and of the limits on the authority and powers of these traditional chiefs. 9. The Committee further recommends that the State party should: (a) Adopt, as a matter of great urgency, and ensure the effective implementation of a law establishing the right of all persons held in police custody, during the initial hours of detention, of access to a lawyer of their choice and an independent doctor, and to inform their relatives of their detention. The Committee remarks that any extension of detention in custody ought to be approved by a judge;