A/HRC/16/78 18. Harmful traditional practices have continued to perpetuate inequality of and discrimination towards women. The Human Rights Section of UNIPSIL together with the national human rights commission have intervened with the local authorities in cases brought to its attention, and discriminatory decisions in relation to inheritance and forced and early marriage have been reversed on the basis of the existing legal framework. Nonetheless, the persistence of FGM and violence against women remain a challenge. 3. Right to liberty/prison conditions 19. Arbitrary arrest and detention by police officers continued to occur in many parts of the country. During monitoring visits to police cells by the Human Rights Section UNIPSIL, it was found that on many occasions, suspects had been detained for minor offences beyond the constitutionally stipulated period of 72 hours. Indiscriminate arrest and detention by police were observed during peaceful demonstrations. In November 2010, some fifty people were indiscriminately arrested and detained after a community rose up against a mining company in Tonkolili district. They were detained in unhygienic police cells for more than a week without being charged. 20. In 2008/2009, the United Nations Peace-Building Fund (PBF) provided assistance to the Sierra Leone Prison Department, enabling improvements to infrastructure, and the purchase of beds, mattresses and vehicles. However, prison facilities continue to face problems of overcrowding, lack of water, and health and sanitation facilities. The prisons also lack adequate recreational and educational facilities, which makes the rehabilitation of convicts a major challenge. The Pademba prison in Freetown, for example, was intended to house 325 prisoners, but currently houses more than 1,000 inmates. On a positive note, in November 2010, all female detainees at the Pademba prison were relocated to the detention premises of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), which previously hosted only SCSL detainees, and which was handed over the Sierra Leone Prison Service in November 2009. 4. Access to justice 21. Enormous progress was made during the reporting period in the judicial sector in terms of improvement to infrastructure, and the appointment of more magistrates and judges to the bench. The justice system has gained more independence, and overt political interference into the administration of justice has been mitigated. Development partners, including the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), have been providing financial support to these processes. Notwithstanding, there are still challenges: the judicial system is critically underresourced and understaffed, which has resulted in undue delays especially, with criminal proceedings. For close to 6 million residents, Sierra Leone has only 14 judges, 15 magistrates and 7 public prosecutors. 22. Some districts (for example Bonthe) have been without a resident magistrate for a long time. The remuneration for judges and magistrates is still not attractive enough to attract young and energetic legal practitioners to the bench. The insufficient number of public prosecutors has led to the use of police prosecutors in an effort to compensate. However, despite numerous training sessions by international partners, knowledge retention among police prosecutors remains low due to the high frequency of personnel transfers. The technical capacity of justice actors also undermines human rights protection. During interaction with the judiciary, the need for more training in emerging legal areas, such as transnational crimes, as well as longstanding areas of concern, such as juvenile and gender justice, was highlighted. These shortfalls have affected the efficiency of the administration of justice and contributed, in part, to the backlog of criminal and civil cases. 6