E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6 page 20 Circumstances surrounding capital punishment 68. The Special Rapporteur is also concerned about the circumstances surrounding the death penalty, including the situation of prisoners on death row. At the Beijing Municipality Detention Centre, where the Special Rapporteur spoke with prisoners sentenced to death at first instance awaiting appeal, he noted that these prisoners were handcuffed and shackled with leg irons weighing approximately 3 kg, 24 hours per day and in all circumstances (i.e. including during meals, visits to the toilet, etc).71 In the opinion of the Special Rapporteur this practice is inhuman and degrading and serves only as an additional form of punishment of someone already subjected to the stress and grief associated with having been sentenced to death. 69. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express concern at the high number of crimes for which the death penalty can be applied, and the lack of official statistics on the application of the death penalty, which contributes to the perception of secrecy.72 He encourages the Government to both narrow its scope and to be more transparent towards family members and the public at large regarding its use, including by making statistics on the death penalty public information. The Special Rapporteur notes allegations that some provincial authorities are introducing mobile execution vans (converted 24-seater buses) manufactured by a State-owned company.73 These mobile execution vans were reportedly approved by Yunnan Provincial authorities on 6 March 2003, and 18 such vans were distributed to all intermediate courts and one high court in Yunnan Province in 2003. In December 2003, the SPC in Beijing reportedly urged all provinces to acquire execution vans “that can put to death convicted criminals immediately after sentencing”. 70. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the anticipated recovery by the Supreme People’s Court of responsibility for final approval of the death penalty.74 VI. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusions 71. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his sincere gratitude to the Government of China for having invited him and for having facilitated his mission in general accordance with his terms of reference. He welcomes the Government’s willingness to acknowledge the pervasiveness of torture in the criminal justice system and various efforts undertaken in recent years at the central and the provincial level to combat torture and ill-treatment. In particular, he notes the 2004 regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security prohibiting the use of torture and threats to gain confessions and the announcement by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate in 2005 that eliminating interrogation through torture was a priority of its work agenda. Recent efforts to eradicate torture include a nationwide campaign to clear up and rectify extended police custody, large-scale training of the police, piloting systems of audio and video recording in interrogation rooms, placing lawyers on a 24-hour basis in pilot police stations and establishing resident procurators in places of detention and near public security bureaux to supervise law enforcement personnel. 72. These and similar measures have contributed to a steady decline of torture practices over recent years. Nevertheless, on the basis of a considerable number of allegations that he and his predecessors received over the years, as well as other reliable governmental and