A/HRC/7/3/Add.2 page 101 527. The Government informed that in order to check the rape in police custody, women police stations have been set up in all big cities for women. Female police staff run these stations, and female investigators interrogate female suspects. Ordinary police stations are not allowed to detain women overnight. In jails and lockups, female detainees are held separately from males. 528. The Women’s Protection Bill was passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on 15 November 2006. Under this bill, rape cases (earlier tried only under hadd/shariah law) will be dealt with under normal criminal courts. This does away with the need for four witnesses and allows convictions to be made on the basis of forensic and circumstantial evidence. 529. Recommendation (j) stated: It is essential that the judiciary exercise its responsibility for monitoring prison conditions with something like the zeal with which it is prepared to send people to overcrowded jails. In addition, the establishment of some other form of ensuring independent monitoring of prisons, with a non-governmental component, would seem to be a matter of priority. The recommendations concerning improvement of the recruitment, remuneration, training and management of members of the police service apply equally to personnel of the prison service. 530. The National Police Bureau of Pakistan actively engages with human rights activists, lawyers and members of civil society, facilitating their visits to jails and police stations. The Bureau recently joined hands with Altus Global Alliance, a Hague-based NGO, and ROZAN, an Islamabad-based NGO, in organizing a police station visitors’ week from 22 to 26 October 2007. During the week, activists of NGOs accompanied by civil society members visited various police stations in five cities to look into their operating procedures, public-dealing, working conditions, and the conditions of cells, among other things. Russian Federation Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur in the report of his visit to the Russian Federation in 1994 (E/CN.4/1995/34/Add.1, paras. 77-86). 531. The Government provided information on 12 November 2007. 532. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the information received from the Government on the positive steps taken, in particular in the area of legislative and penitentiary reform (see also previous reports, e.g. E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.2). 533. At the same time he notes with concern the assessment of the UN Committee against Torture that shortcomings persist, among other things, in connection with the definition of torture in national law (CAT/C/RUS/CO/4, para. 7), with access to lawyers and relatives (para. 8), and the independence of the procuracy (para. 12) and the judiciary (para. 13); and the continuous widespread use of torture and the situation in Chechnya