rarely consider the impact that the exercise of these rights could have upon the measures to which they are subject. For many captives, the assertion of rights requires an understanding of the language in which they are set out, as well as the vocabulary used. In places of deprivation of liberty it is rare to encounter persons who have a command of the legal and administrative language used to inform them of their rights and of the procedures that have to be implemented in order to exercise them. Moreover, the recent coming into force of new laws and the increasing attribution of the status of rulings to the applicable procedures further complicates the task of staff and reduces understanding of their rights on the part of those concerned. Finally, applications for remedy, whether to a court or even to the same administrative authority for the reconsideration of its decision, require material and human means to which, ipso facto, captives do not have free access. The inspections conducted over a period of more than four years have shown that, beyond the diversity of places of deprivation of liberty, of their mode of operation and of the measures and proceedings which lead them there, persons deprived of liberty all come up against obstacles of the same nature in defending their rights. 1. Access to Information: an Essential Precondition for any Defence In most cases, those whose role is to inform persons deprived of liberty of their rights find themselves in a paradoxical situation: convinced of the need for the custodial measure, they nevertheless have to give objective information which may lead the person concerned to dispute the principle or terms thereof. Furthermore, although, as a general rule, detention decisions and the rights attached thereto are notified automatically, the content of the said rights and of their scope is, in most cases, only explained at the request of the person concerned. In a certain number of cases, in the absence of requests on the part of persons deprived of liberty, access to defence rights remains theoretical. In order to ensure the best possible access to defence rights for persons deprived of liberty, the legislature has specified to whom information should be provided and what the content thereof should be. 1.1 Informing Persons Deprived of Liberty of the Existence of their Rights is a Priority 1.1.1 The information should be personally issued to persons deprived of liberty Notification of rights means that when a person is subject to a custodial measure, they should be individually informed of their rights and of the consequences thereof. 148