Section 4 Access to Defence Rights for Persons Deprived of Liberty Defence rights traditionally means the prerogatives that a person has bring legal proceedings, both at the stage of taking of evidence and at the judicial examination and judgement stages. Article 6 § 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, thus acknowledges in particular the right of every person charged with a criminal offence: to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail, of the nature and cause of the accusation against him; to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence; to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or, if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when the interests of justice so require; to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him; to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court. For persons encountered in places of deprivation of liberty 228, defence rights mean, in the first place, the right to apply to the courts of competent jurisdiction to set aside the decisions, whether court rulings or administrative decisions, which ordered their captivity. It emerges from the inspections conducted by the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté that the conditions of operation of these places can also lead, according to circumstances, to the express or tacit deprivation of other rights. Access to defence rights is adversely affected in particular by the conditions of operation of places of detention, if this is understood to mean – beyond lawsuits and trials – not only the right to defence against custodial sentences themselves but also the right of appeal against decisions – whether necessary or contingent – brought about by deprivation of liberty or living conditions in places of imprisonment. Safeguarding of rights and access to defence rights for captives, whose living conditions are greatly affected by decisions on the part of the authorities, are two sides of the same issue. At the very least, exercise of defence rights presupposes knowledge of them. However, although persons deprived of liberty understand the measures to which they are subject – although this may not always be the case for hospitalised mental health patients or minors placed in young offenders’ institutions – they are not always aware of the legal, judicial and administrative nature thereof, the remedies against them and their effects as a whole. Although persons deprived of liberty are informed by the authorities that special rights are attached to their situation (to be examined by a doctor, to be assisted, to inform a close relation etc.), they are little aware of the scope and purpose of a number of these rights. They 228 th According to the meaning of act no. 2007-1545 of 30 October 2007 instituting a Chief Inspector of places of deprivation of liberty. 147