A/HRC/45/CRP.9 and thus the practice may amount to enforced disappearance. 144 OHCHR is also concerned that since the adoption of the ‘criminal procedure code’ on 24 August 2018, ‘prosecutors’ in territory controlled by ‘Donetsk people’s republic’ can order pre-trial detention without ‘court’ orders or judicial review. OHCHR notes that this practice amounts to a violation of the right of persons arrested to be brought before a judicial body and constitutes arbitrary detention. C. Right not to be compelled to testify 112. OHCHR is concerned about consistent reports of torture and ill-treatment used to obtain “confessions” from detainees, which are then used in conflict-related ‘trials’.145 International human rights law and international humanitarian law prohibit the use of torture and ensure the right against self-incrimination. The right not to be compelled to testify against oneself extends to any direct or indirect physical or undue psychological pressure by the investigating authorities, and is an important safeguard of fair trial.146 Compelling an accused person to confess through force or other duress violates both the right not to be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to a fair trial.147 113. OHCHR found that torture and intimidation of conflict-related detainees usually occurred during apprehension and administrative detention, when detainees were held incommunicado. Among the perpetrators were members of the ‘ministries of state security’, ‘police’, and armed groups of self-proclaimed ‘republics’. OHCHR documented cases where detainees were beaten, suffocated, deprived of food, water, toilet or sleep, and subjected to electric shocks, positional torture, mock executions and other forms of torture. 148 Documented patterns of intimidation included threats of execution, torture and sexual violence, often also against relatives of detainees, and threats of additional ‘charges’ of grave crimes. In particular, the existence of the death penalty under the ‘criminal code’ of ‘Donetsk people’s republic’,149 has allowed the ‘prosecution’ to intimidate detainees with threats of additional charges that carry the death penalty. 114. OHCHR found that forced confessions obtained during administrative detention were recorded in writing or on video and then formalised into ‘records of interrogations’ after initiation of ‘criminal proceedings’. Detainees signed the ‘records’ and did not withdraw their testimony in fear of further torture or ill-treatment, or threats made previously. 115. The frameworks of both self-proclaimed ‘republics’ neither oblige ‘judges’ to take measures to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment during pre-trial investigations, nor provide an independent body tasked to ‘investigate’ such allegations. Furthermore, OHCHR was informed that ‘courts’ often used confessions obtained during the ‘investigation’ even when the defendants subsequently withdrew them during ‘trials’. 150 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 See International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, article 2. See also Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/40/59/Add.3, paras. 99-100, available at undocs.org/A/HRC/40/59/Add.3; OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 February to 15 May 2018, para. 48, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/ReportUkraineFev-May2018_EN.pdf; OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 May to 15 August 2018, paras. 52 and 54, available at: www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/28thReportUkraine_EN.pdf; OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 August to 15 November 2019, para. 52, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/28thReportUkraine_EN.pdf; OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020, Annex I, available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/29thReportUkraine_EN.pdf. HRC, General Comment No. 32, para. 25. Ibid, para. 60. See also OHCHR, Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020, Annex I. Article 43 of the ‘criminal code’ of ‘Donetsk people’s republic’. OHCHR interview, 12 January 2018. 25