A/HRC/32/12 subjected to torture or inhumane treatment, and that the right to legal representation and a fair trial was guaranteed. All law enforcement and security agencies, including the National Intelligence and Security Agency, adhered to the constitutional laws of the country. 25. It remained a challenge for the Government to prevent the killings of journalists. However, the Office of the General Prosecutor had taken steps to prevent perpetrators from enjoying impunity and freedom. It had conducted investigations into the killings of journalists to bring suspects before courts of law. 26. The Government worked tirelessly to prosecute all crimes of assassination. One of the groups most targeted by armed terrorist groups was government officials. In the past three years, about 24 judges and prosecutors had been the victims of targeted killings. 27. With regard to the justice sector, the Attorney General indicated that securing access to qualified and competent legal aid remained challenging. To improve the credibility and independence of the judicial system, the Government had worked to strengthen access to justice for members of vulnerable groups, including women and internally displaced persons. 28. The Ministry of Justice had been working to improve the capacity of the judiciary. The Office of the Attorney General was continuously working to enable the prosecution of suspects of crimes, such as terrorism and piracy, in accordance with the principles of due process. Concerning piracy, the Government had worked to interrupt criminal activities at sea, strengthening domestic maritime law-enforcement capacity and addressing the root causes of maritime crime on land. A ban on ransom payments for piracy hostages had not been feasible due to the lack of enforcement capacity. 29. The number of qualified police investigators, judges, prosecutors and other staff in the judiciary had been increased. More than 30 judges and prosecutors had completed a two-year judicial training programme. The Office of Attorney General had also recruited 20 more new prosecutors, including six women. 30. The courts had delivered a number of significant judgments, directly invoking both constitutional provisions and national laws. Judgments relating to sexual violence against women and children had also been passed. The Government had been vocal about the passing of these judgments to make citizens aware that impunity would not be accepted in Somalia. 31. The Attorney General stated that elimination of the death penalty was something that required a long process. The Somali provisional Constitution prescribed sharia law as the paramount law. Sharia law provided for the death penalty for a limited number of crimes. Somalia was reviewing penal procedure codes to reduce the number of crimes for which the death penalty was applied, and was looking into alternative penalties, such as life imprisonment, for other crimes that carry the death penalty. 32. Concerning torture, the Attorney General affirmed that the Government did not condone torture or ill-treatment of any person. All law enforcement and security agencies adhered to that principle. The Government was working to raise awareness that there could not be any circumstances in which torture was permissible. 33. There had been no forced evictions of internally displaced persons in Mogadishu or anywhere else in Somalia. In Mogadishu, internally displaced persons were living in camps managed by non-governmental organizations, which were monitored by the Government to ensure full protection and assistance to the people concerned. Court workers had gone to the camps to listen to their complaints and had taken the necessary action to contact the relevant authorities for follow-up. No one had been arbitrarily evicted from their home and the Government did not allow this to happen. 6

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