A/HRC/28/68/Add.3 enforced disappearances. He received disturbing testimonies about the excessive delays, errors, lack of information, stigmatization and harassment experienced by relatives of disappeared persons in the search for and the identification of remains, which may also constitute ill-treatment. This applies to crimes committed both by public employees and by private individuals. 28. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the use of sexual violence as a form of torture, mainly against women detainees. Sexual torture includes forced nudity, insults and verbal humiliation, groping of breasts and genitals, insertion of objects in the genitals and repeated rape by multiple individuals. Few of these cases have been investigated or punished, or else they have been classified as less serious conducts, and they present particular challenges for victims, who are often revictimized when they file complaints or undergo medical examinations. 29. Generally speaking, victims of torture and ill-treatment are people who are poor or from marginalized social sectors, a situation that exacerbates problems of stigmatization and inadequate safeguards. The Special Rapporteur draws attention to the many cases in which people with no apparent link to the criminal conduct under investigation report having been detained, forced to sign statements under torture and, in some cases, sentenced on the basis of these statements. 30. Complaints of abusive law enforcement during demonstrations or against journalists or human rights defenders have increased, but have not been investigated effectively. The creation in 2012, with civil society participation, of the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists was a positive step, but the Mechanism needs to be strengthened to ensure its survival and effectiveness. The police forces and the armed forces have issued protocols regulating the conduct of law enforcement activities, but there is no federal legislation that regulates law enforcement in accordance with international standards. The Special Rapporteur stresses the need to address this issue as a matter of priority, especially given the various demonstrations that have taken place recently. 31. The right of victims of torture and ill-treatment to comprehensive redress is illusory, since there are hardly any cases in which victims have been compensated, received medical and psychological care or benefited from rehabilitation in accordance with international standards. The redress recommended by the human rights commissions is insufficient and is not generally forthcoming. By law, the person criminally responsible for the crime must pay financial compensation, but in the prevailing climate of impunity this almost never happens. The General Victims Act offers an excellent opportunity for progress in this area and the Special Rapporteur calls for its implementation to be strengthened nationwide. B. Investigations 32. The fact that the large number of complaints and testimonies received is not matched by a similar number of investigations of torture and ill-treatment, still less convictions, is evidence of a disturbing level of impunity. The Government reported only five convictions for torture between 2005 and 2013, of which two are final and impose prison terms of 3 and 37 years respectively. The number of recommendations issued by the National Human Rights Commission and state human rights commissions concerning cases of torture and illtreatment is also substantially lower than the number of complaints they received. In response to 11,254 complaints of torture and ill-treatment received between 2005 and 2013, the National Human Rights Commission has issued 223 recommendations, not one of which has resulted in a criminal conviction. This shows that impunity extends to cases of torture verified by the human rights commissions. With some rare exceptions, there have also been no administrative investigations and no one has been dismissed, and many of the alleged perpetrators remain in office. 8 GE.14-25288