A/HRC/13/39/Add.2 (c) Under the new Ministry, create a new, well-trained and well-resourced prison staff unit with a view to replacing the police officers currently serving as prison guards. Understaffing of detention facilities results in a lack of security for the staff members themselves and makes it difficult to fulfil their obligation to protect detainees from inter-prisoner violence; (d) Limit recourse to pretrial detention, particularly for non-violent, minor and less serious offences, and increase the application of non-custodial measures; and (e) Ensure that deprivation of liberty for juveniles is only used as a measure of last resort and that the use of pretrial detention is minimized. Conditions of detention (f) Ensure that persons deprived of their liberty are confined in penitentiaries where the conditions comply with international minimum sanitary and hygienic standards and that detainees are provided with basic necessities, such as adequate floor space, bedding, food and health care. Provide detainees with work opportunities, education, recreation and rehabilitation activities; the chronic overcrowding should immediately be addressed; (g) Immediately close down the steel modules commonly known as Las Latas in Libertad Penitentiary and Modules 2–4 of COMCAR; (h) Ensure the effective separation of remand and convicted prisoners; (i) Ensure that medical examinations are carried out by qualified medical professionals as standard procedure when detainees are arrested, transferred and released; and (j) Follow the pilot project of COMCAR prison so that the responsibility for medical services lies with the Ministry of Health. The fight against impunity and reparation for torture victims (k) Amend the Criminal Code to include the definition of torture as an autonomous crime, in line with articles 1 and 4 of the Convention against Torture; (l) All allegations of torture and ill-treatment should be promptly and thoroughly investigated ex officio by an independent authority with no connection to the authority investigating or prosecuting the case; (m) Ensure that the perpetrators of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship are brought to justice, that justice is served within a reasonable time, and that the memory of the victims, including those disappeared and killed, is preserved; and (n) Victims of torture and ill-treatment should receive substantial compensation and adequate medical treatment and rehabilitation. Prevention of torture (o) Broaden the mandate of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Penitentiary System to include all places of detention and ensure that this mechanism is integrated into the national human rights institution as the National Preventive Mechanism; and (p) Sufficient budgetary and human resources should be allocated in order to ensure that the sound legal basis of the National Preventive Mechanism translates into its effective functioning in practice. GE.09-17655 23