A/HRC/27/48
enter temporary detention isolators without any authorization. The 2013 Development
Strategy for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia acknowledges the importance of
monitoring those isolators, inter alia, through independent oversight bodies. A ministerial
order of 17 May 2013 approved a new Police Code of Ethics and a directive for staff at
those isolators. At the beginning of 2013, the duration of the basic training courses for
police officers was doubled from three to six months and those courses include human
rights subjects in their curricula. New methods for testing and interviewing candidates have
been introduced. Riot, patrol, border and criminal police officers must be retrained
periodically in order to improve their qualifications, particularly in the human rights area.
39.
During the period 2012–2013, 146 investigations were launched into cases of illtreatment cases; 48 persons were prosecuted, including the former head of the Penitentiary
Department and several directors of prisons; 21 persons have been convicted. During the
first nine months of 2013, 74 meetings with prisoners were held in various penitentiary
facilities. Nine investigations for bodily injury were launched following prisoners’
applications. A variety of mechanisms for raising concerns and the transmission of
complaints are available to detainees. The Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, the Public
Defender’s Office and the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs can be
contacted at any moment.
40.
The Government further reported that the duration of basic training courses for
officers of the Patrol Police Department and the Border Police have been extended from 12
to 20 weeks and from 6 to 14 weeks, respectively. The courses are aimed at ensuring proper
protection of the human rights of asylum seekers and other persons in need.
41.
The first set of procedural law amendments aimed at enhancing the principle of
adversariality were drafted in 2012. In accordance with the Working Group’s
recommendation, the amendments are aimed at ensuring equality of arms between the
defence and the prosecution in criminal proceedings. The amendments to the Criminal
Procedure Code were submitted to the Parliament of Georgia in June 2013. A new code on
administrative offences is being drafted.
Senegal
42.
The Government of Senegal reported that the rule of habeas corpus is well present in
the criminal legislation of Senegal. Article 91 of the Constitution makes the judiciary the
guardian of rights and freedoms. The principle of the independence of the judiciary is
established in its article 88. The assistance of a lawyer is mandatory only in criminal
matters. A legal aid fund is available.
43.
Following a judgement in a criminal matter, a detainee may be sentenced to
alternative prison measures (contrainte par corps), in addition to the award of damages and
interest to the civil party, or fines. That applies in criminal matters exclusively, however,
and never in civil cases. Alternative prison measures (contrainte par corps) are carefully
regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code in its articles 7.9 and following.
44.
The Organic Law of 2008 on the Supreme Court provides in its article 4 for the
establishment of a commission to compensate persons who have spent several years in
preventive detention. However, no regime has been formulated to regulate the application
of the law.
45.
The decree regulating prisons provides for disciplinary cells reserved for recalcitrant
inmates and disruptive prisoners. In Senegal, detainees are subjected to disciplinary
measures only exceptionally, however. The police misconduct which marked the 2012
presidential election campaign is currently the subject of judicial proceedings. A dozen
gendarmes and police officers are being held in places of detention.
16
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