A/HRC/34/73 B. Prolonged pretrial detention and inhumane detention conditions 1. Urgent need to eradicate prolonged pretrial detention 39. During their meetings with the Independent Expert, the President of the Republic and the Minister of Justice acknowledged the need to put an end to prolonged pretrial detention, which has led to the situation that 71 per cent of persons deprived of their liberty have not come before a judicial authority. According to official figures, at the time that the Independent Expert conducted his sixth visit to Haiti in October 2016, 3,182 out of 11,012 prisoners (372 of whom were women, 220 were boys and 22 were girls) had been convicted, while 7,830 were in detention awaiting trial. 40. The Presidential Commission on Prolonged Pretrial Detention was set up to address this recurring human rights violation. The Commission, which is composed of nine members, was set up on 5 September 2016 by the Minister of Justice and tasked with drawing up a national list of the persons being held in prolonged pretrial detention in all civilian prisons and in all police stations serving as detention centres for the country’s 18 courts of first instance and making recommendations for the scheduling of court hearings to process the cases identified, expeditiously and in accordance with the law. 41. The deadline by which the Commission is to complete its work is set at three months and may be extended. The list of persons being held will not take long to draw up, as similar lists have already been meticulously prepared by other organizations in the country. The scheduling of hearings, however, will require a little more time. The Chair and a member of the Commission voiced their concern to the Independent Expert about the short time available for the Commission to complete such a complex task, for which they deemed a period of at least one year to be necessary, and expressed the view that a permanent institution should be set up to monitor pretrial detention-related issues, including the work of judges and government commissioners. 42. Although the Commission did not have a budget for the first month and a half of its existence — in other words, half the time allotted for it to conduct its work — the Minister of Finance informed the Independent Expert in October 2016 that his office had earmarked sufficient funds to ensure its proper functioning. 43. Qualified observers from the legal community and political analysts had mixed views on the Commission’s chances of success: for some of them, the fact that the decision to establish it had been taken at the presidential level was a good sign, whereas, for others, it was not the first time that a commission with similar objectives had been established and its composition was not very impressive. Moreover, the short period of time allotted to it to complete its work could become an obstacle to the fulfilment of its mandate. However matters turn out, it is desirable that the Commission should overcome its real or perceived limitations so as to enable the country’s prison population numbers to return to normal levels as soon as possible. 44. The Independent Expert reiterates once again the urgent need to put an end to prolonged pretrial detention in Haiti. The measures that he has proposed have been set out in detail in his previous reports. 2. Other factors related to detention conditions 45. According to the authorities, there were 11,012 persons in detention during the Independent Expert’s sixth visit in October 2016, whereas the capacity of the country’s prisons does not exceed 4,000, giving rise to a prison overcrowding rate of 359 per cent. 13 There would be no overcrowding if only persons who had been convicted (of whom there 13 GE.17-03747 According to information provided orally by the Prisons Administration. This body has set itself the target of providing each prisoner with 2.5 square metres of living space. If this were the case, the capacity of the country’s prisons would be 2,944 persons. According to the United Nations, the target should be 4.5 square metres per person, which would make the capacity of the country’s prisons 1,635 people. 9