from duty for up to one year and criminal prosecution. Gender in Commissariat Of the 3,000 members of this force, 100 are women. The plan for one examination to be taken by both men and women applicants into the police is likely to increase the number of policewomen. Suspects Food The Police have no budget to feed suspects. Food is therefore provided by relatives and friends. Where suspects have no one to provide food for them, the Police usually deal with the difficulty satisfactorily. Meeting with NGOs and the Press, Novotel Orisha, Cotonou A large number of representatives of NGOs attended this meeting (see attached list). In his introductory remarks, the Director of Prisons welcomed suggestions for improvement in prison conditions, including the revolt of some prisoners in Cotonou Prison. After a brief presentation of the African System for the Protection of Human Rights, the SR encouraged the NGOs to seek observer status with the Commission, and also encouraged them to continue with their work in the promotion and protection of human rights. Speaker after Speaker noted that it was the first time that a member of the African Commission had been to Benin. The many questions posed to the SR were answered by him. The meeting was televised and shown on national television on two different days. It also received press coverage. TUESDAY 24 AUGUST 1999 Centre for the Welfare of Juveniles and Adolescents, Aglanbanda ited along the Cotonou-Porto-Novo Road, the above Centre was established in 1967. It was transferred to the present location in 1975. Because of financial constraints, it has been closed and re-opened many times. The latest re-opening was on 4 April 1995. It is a modest Centre with 15 inmates, all of them male. Having only one dormitory accounts partly for the single gender representation. S The Centre aims at rehabilitating young offenders and saving juveniles from moral degeneration. Consequently, the Centre houses two sets of youth. The first are young offenders who are brought by the prison service. The others are juveniles who are taken into the Centre upon the request of their parents. Concerning the latter group an assessment is made as to whether they would benefit from the regime at the Centre. Those considered not suitable for admission into the Centre are not given up for loss: social workers from the Centre maintain contact with the former and their families with a view to getting them to walk on the right path of the law. The inmates of the Centre are given formal education, trained in trade skills and agriculture; and are provided with facilities to participate in sporting and cultural activities. Some of the training, like welding, is given at workshops in town. The juveniles have classes twice a week. Tailoring, carpentry and joinery engage their attention for the rest of the time in addition to the recreational activities. Rehabilitation and training of deviants are not the only concerns of the Centre: preventive action is also pursued. Officials of the Centre visit schools and counsel pupils against engaging in criminality. A second Centre is to be built in Parakou so as not to confine to the environs of the capital the training given at Aglanbanda. Visit of the premises Tailoring Workshop Very spacious, it had five sewing machines, one of which was donated by the Red Cross and the rest supplied by the Ministry of Justice. The workshop was constructed by Red Cross.