A/HRC/22/53/Add.1 It is unclear whether the legislation has been amended to eliminate the statute of limitations for registering complaints against acts of torture. 26. The Special Rapporteur notes with concern that, under article 28(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a court, judge, prosecutor or investigator may terminate criminal proceedings and exempt the person in question from criminal liability by reason of repentance, conciliation with the victim, a change in circumstances or expiration of the period of statute of limitations for criminal prosecution. Furthermore, article 32 of the Code states that any request to institute criminal proceedings or to terminate criminal proceedings once the statute of limitations has expired must be rejected. III. Assessment of the situation 27. Tajikistan has come a long way in institution-building and human rights protection since it declared its independence in 1991. By acceding to numerous international human rights treaties, the Government has sent a clear signal of its commitment to give high priority to the fight against torture and ill-treatment. 28. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the establishment of a working group headed by the Chairperson of the Constitutional Court to raise awareness and build capacity on the prohibition of torture among law enforcement agencies. He hopes that its mandate will be extended beyond 2012 and will aim at introducing institutional changes and establishing jurisprudence by which the Convention against Torture may be invoked within domestic legislation. 29. The Special Rapporteur notes numerous significant developments in the area of legislation, including the two-phase programme of judicial/legal reform aimed at strengthening the judiciary; the adoption of a new Code of Criminal Procedure, introducing remand hearing and transfer of the prerogative of prosecutors to authorize pretrial detention to judges; 5 the introduction of article 143-1 on the definition of torture in the Criminal Code; the orders addressed to law enforcement officials respectively issued by the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Minister of the Interior to strictly respect the rights and guarantees of persons deprived of their liberty; the decree issued by the Supreme Court on 2012 June providing guidance for judges to inquire into treatment during pretrial detention; the draft law on advokatura; and the Code of Professional Police Ethics adopted by the Ministry of the Interior in March 2011. 30. The Special Rapporteur hopes that proper mechanisms will be promptly put in place to ensure the implementation of the above-mentioned orders and instructions. It is important to keep up the momentum and to fill in all remaining gaps between the normative framework and practice, and that more determined steps be taken to prevent torture and illtreatment in the future. A. Torture and ill-treatment 31. Torture and other forms of ill-treatment by law enforcement officers are believed to be often practiced across Tajikistan and are often used to extract self-incriminating evidence, confession and money. 6 Because of a lack of capacity and expertise in investigating crimes, extracting confession through ill-treatment or torture is often seen as the only and the least time- and resource-consuming way to secure evidence. The 5 6 Code of Criminal Procedure, art. 35, part 1, and art. 104, part 2. CCPR/CO/84/TJK, para. 10.. 7