level of “psychological meaningful social contact for detainees while in solitary confinement” be increased.197 2 1 UN TREATY BODIES The Committee went even further in its Concluding Observations on Japan. In response to allegations that solitary confinement was being used as punishment, that procedural safeguards were lacking, and that in some cases the period of isolation exceeded 10 years, the Committee recommended that the State party not only amend its legislation, but also “consider systematically reviewing all cases of prolonged solitary confinement, through a specialized psychological and psychiatric evaluation, with a view to releasing those where the detention can be considered in violation on the Convention.”198 1.3.5 Incommunicado detention and enforced disappearances Effective prevention of torture requires the enactment and enforcement of procedural guarantees requiring that all detainees be registered and have regular contact with people outside the detention centre. The International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which has yet to enter into force, aims to eliminate the practice of incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance, which place detainees at particular risk, and may in themselves constitute ill-treatment or torture. The Disappeances Convention defines an “enforced disappearance” as: “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”199 The Convention also addresses incommunicado detention, providing that states shall enact laws “guaranteeing that any person deprived of liberty shall be authorised to communicate with and be visited by his or her family, counsel or any other person of his or her choice, subject only to the conditions established by law.”200 Ibid. CAT, Concluding Observations on Japan, UN Doc. CAT/C/JPN/CO/1, 2007, §18. 199 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006, GA Res. 61/177, 20 December 2006, UN Doc. A/RES/61/177 (not yet in force), Article 2. 200 Ibid. Article 17(d). 197 198 43