interrogation. There is no provision made for video and audio-taping of proceedings in Nepal. (h) Judges and prosecutors routinely ask persons brought from police custody how they have been treated and, even in the absence of a formal complaint from the defendant, order an independent medical examination There was a lack of prosecutions in the face of mounting and credible allegations of torture and other acts of ill-treatment by the police, APF and RNA. There was a lack of confidence in the justice system and the rule of law on the part of victims and their families. Non-governmental sources: Most detainees do not make formal complaints of torture and other illtreatment when taken before a judge or prosecutor, mostly for fear of reprisals. Although some judges have developed the practice of asking male detainees to remove their shirts and questioning them about their treatment at the hands of the police, such practice has not become uniform and in any case is inadequate to detect whether torture or other ill-treatment has been committed, particularly with regard to methods which do not leave physical marks, including psychological torture or illtreatment. Judges do not systematically test the voluntary nature of a confession and many confessions extracted under duress are still admitted as evidence. This is exacerbated in cases in which the victim fears telling the court about torture or ill-treatment in front of the police officers involved in whose custody they remain. Non-governmental sources: Article 135, 3 (C) of the Interim Constitution gives powers to the Attorney General’s Office to investigate allegations of inhumane treatment of any person in custody and gives the necessary directions under the Constitution to the relevant authorities to prevent the recurrence of such a situation. Prosecutors and judges rarely question detainees brought before them about their treatment in police custody, although it has been observed that judges and court staff have been more cooperative with victims of torture and their lawyers. In many cases however, detainees do not appear before a judge directly, with the judge relying on police reports. A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 121 In the context of cases brought under the Torture Compensation Act, detainees are increasingly taken for examination at the time of arrest, although there are concerns regarding the quality of these examinations. Quite commonly doctors underreport injuries as they are concerned for their own security and fear reprisals. Often, junior staff is assigned the task of conducting