A Monitoring Guide 77 Some states have adopted policies on searches with the aim of protecting the dignity of trans detainees and preventing abuse. In Argentina, procedural guidelines regarding searches of trans detainees were approved by the Federal Penitentiary Services in 2016. The decision to develop such guidelines followed a habeas corpus petition presented by the Public Defender’s Office (Defensoría General de la Nación), in which degrading searches on trans women were denounced. The guidelines, which were developed with the support of the Federal Ombudsman for Prison (which forms part of the National Preventive Mechanism), outline how both medical visual assessments (aiming to evaluate the detainee’s state of health and detect injuries) and searches should be conducted. Regarding searches, the guidelines stipulate that alternative means should first be sought and, when strip searches cannot be avoided for well-grounded reasons, prison staff should check clothing and belongings only, letting the medical staff conduct the body search itself. They also stipulate that prison staff cannot have physical, verbal, or visual contact with the person being examined by the health care staff. The guidelines also foresee adequate training for staff, and dissemination of this information among trans detainees63. In Colombia, the General Regulation on Correctional Establishments stipulates64 that trans detainees should be asked on a case-by-case basis whether they prefer to be searched by a male or a female guard (Art. 28). It also includes specific provisions for trans visitors, whereby body searches are to be conducted on the basis of the visitors’ self-declared gender, independently of the information provided on their identification document. In case of any doubt, the visitor has to be asked if he or she prefers to be searched by a male or a female officer (Art. 68, para. 5). Case law Intersex detainee subjected to inhumane and degrading body searches In 2010, the High Court of Kenya found in Richard Muasya v. the Hon. 63 Servicio Penitenciario Federal, Guía de procedimiento de “visu médico” y de “control y registro” de personas trans en el ámbito del servicio central de alcaidías, March 2016. 64 Resolución 006349 Por la cual se expide el Reglamento General de los Establecimientos de Reclusión del Orden Nacional-ERON a cargo del INPEC, 19 dic. 2016. Chapter III Good practice: Policies on searching trans detainees