A/HRC/28/82 38. A further disparity appears in the gender inequality index, which reflects genderbased inequalities in three areas: reproductive health, empowerment and economic activity. In 2013, Haiti had a gender inequality index rating of 0.599, which was a modest improvement over the 0.592 recorded in 2012. Even so, it still leaves the country in 132nd place in 2013, as compared with 127th in 2012. 12 39. The Independent Expert wishes to reiterate the hope he expressed in his first report that the social assistance programmes and the 2014–2016 Poverty Reduction Action Plan will be able to meet the basic needs of the majority of the population. It is also his hope that they will help to identify the factors perpetuating the deep social inequalities besetting Haitian society so that they can be neutralized as soon as possible through policies that ensure decent living conditions for all. B. (i) Deprivation of liberty and detention conditions Priority action to address prolonged pretrial detention 40. A second area that requires urgent action is the practice of prolonged pretrial detention. More than 70 per cent of prisoners in Haiti are deprived of their liberty for years without appearing before a judge.13 For some of these individuals, the time spent in pretrial detention is longer than the sentence that might be handed down if they were convicted. This practice is clearly contrary to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates in its article 9, paragraph 3, that anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge is to be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It is therefore crucial that steps be taken to ensure that persons held in prolonged pretrial detention are either tried or released within a reasonable period of time. This perverse judicial practice must be halted. 41. Urgent action must be taken at the national level so that cases can be brought to trial or other solutions found for most of the 7,500 people who are being held in pretrial detention in the country’s seriously overcrowded detention facilities, which currently house over 10,500 prisoners.14 42. As indicated in the Independent Expert’s previous report, the authorities are aware that this situation is not new and it is due in part to the shortage of investigating judges available to hear the cases of detainees. Aside from their insufficient numbers, these judges do not devote enough time to dealing with cases. According to the same sources, some 12 13 14 GE.15-02042 Development Report 2013. The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World. Explanatory note on 2013 HDR composite indices. Haiti. HDI values and rank changes in the 2013 Human Development Report). See http://hdrstats.undp.org/fr/pays/profils/HTI.html. Owing to changes to the UNDP web page, the document is no longer available. The Independent Expert guarantees the accuracy of this citation. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2014, Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience, table 4 (“Gender Inequality Index”). Available at http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr14-report-en-1.pdf (consulted on 26 January 2015). This table refers to the year 2013 although this is not indicated in the heading. According to conversations with the Chief Commissioner of the Prisons Administration, this figure can reach or even exceed 80 per cent. At 31 October 2014, 72 per cent of the people in custody were awaiting trial (79 per cent of them were minors and 81 per cent were women), according to the MINUSTAH correctional unit. The International Centre for Prison Studies estimates that some 70.6 per cent of prisoners were in pretrial detention in August 2013 (www.prisonstudies.org/country/Haiti, consulted on 26 January 2015). As at 31 October 2014, according to the MINUSTAH correctional unit, out of 10,508 prisoners, 7,578 were in pretrial detention. 9