A/HRC/15/47 a draft strengthening the basic requirement of the independence of the future institution. The process is ongoing. The difficulties in establishing effective independent bodies in Cambodia are illustrated by the Government’s timid efforts to establish an independent national preventive mechanism (NPM) as required under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) to which it is a party. In August 2009, a body was established by sub-decree which falls short of the basic OPCAT requirements. It is an interministerial committee consisting of senior officials, chaired by the Interior Minister. There are no independent members or participants from civil society. The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) confirmed the earlier advice of OHCHR that this body could not be regarded as a credible NPM. The Ministry of Interior has acknowledged this fact and signalled its intention to draft a law to formally establish an NPM with a supporting Secretariat. OHCHR has offered support, which the Ministry has accepted, to help draft the law, train the Secretariat and coordinate with other actors. 11. The Office provided support to the SPT during its mission to Cambodia in December 2009. OHCHR assisted the inter-ministerial committee to prepare the visit. The delegation spent ten days visiting prisons, police stations, drug and rehabilitation centres and meeting key Government officials. The Government granted the SPT unfettered access to detention facilities and demonstrated an exemplary openness to discussing its findings. OHCHR was invited to participate in the end-of-mission discussions with the Government. Wider lessons can be drawn from this visit in terms of the value of opening up government activities to scrutiny by independent professional bodies. The SPT methodology, which includes unfettered access to places of detention and detainees, together with confidential interviews and reporting, has been promoted by OHCHR through its prison programme in the past two years. These lessons may serve to inspire Cambodia’s reform of existing or proposed independent institutions, including the judiciary and the NPM. 12. Despite Cambodia’s renewed commitment to preventing torture, prosecutions for acts of torture remain the exception. OHCHR investigated allegations of torture and ill-treatment and raised them with the appropriate authorities but has yet to see any prosecution. The new Penal Code provides for more effective action against perpetrators. 13. Ongoing collaboration between the Office and the Court of Appeal and the Prosecutor-General’s Office has developed. The Court of Appeal hears appeals for criminal and civil cases from all 22 provincial and municipal courts. Thousands of appeals have been pending which, with the court’s current capacity, will take many years to clear. OHCHR has been encouraging donors to support the construction of extra office and courtroom space in order to increase its capacity to address this large backlog. This infrastructure intervention could have a significant and measurable impact on cases of human rights violations related to excessive detention pending appeal, the right to speedy judicial review and overcrowding in prisons. In March 2010, the Office supported a small donors’ conference at which the Appeal Court President and the Prosecutor-General set out their plans to improve the functioning of the Court, which stands at the apex of the court structure. Two donors expressed interest in supporting the project. 14. Arbitrary detention remains a serious problem. The Office continued to monitor unlawful and arbitrary detention of people removed from the streets of Phnom Penh in the context of Government efforts to deal with homelessness. Their arbitrary detention had given rise prior to 2008 to human rights abuses, such as inhuman conditions of detention, ill-treatment sometimes leading to death, and sexual violence. The Office has consistently advised the authorities that detention is an inappropriate response to social deprivation. It has regularly monitored the issue and worked with the Ministry of Social Affairs to inform it of these concerns and to encourage corrective measures. The Ministry instructed its staff to cease participation in police round-ups of poor people in the streets, re-established the principle of voluntariness for admission to its centres and improved its rehabilitation 5