A/HRC/43/35 use independent legal counsel of their choice, 78 been denied access to legal counsel for extended periods and been coerced into providing incriminating information. 79 In some contexts, violations of due process rights have occurred during the arrest, transfer and detention of children, including not being adequately notified of their legal rights, in particular the rights to counsel and to remain silent, being forced to sign confessions in a language they did not understand and not being accompanied by a parent or lawyer during their interrogation.80 25. Additionally, persons detained in occupied territory have endured unlawful conditions of detention without obtaining protection from the judicial authorities and in a manner compromising the judicial process. Detainees in occupied territory have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment as a punishment or to extort confessions or obtain specific information. 81 They have also been held in incommunicado detention or under conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and have been denied access to medical care and deprived of food and water before court hearings. 82 Children detained have likewise endured ill-treatment, including physical abuse during arrest and interrogation, deprivation of adequate food and water and exposure to harsh weather conditions during arrest and transfer to places of interrogation. 83 Detainees from other vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and persons with disabilities, have also endured illtreatment.84 D. Transfers 26. International humanitarian law contains provisions regulating the transfer of detainees in international armed conflict. With regard to prisoners of war and protected persons detained in the State’s own territory, international humanitarian law permits transfers for detention by another State only when the transferring State has satisfied strict obligations to ensure that detainee protection will be maintained in full. This includes an obligation on the transferring State to take effective measures to correct the situation if the receiving State fails to provide the required protection, including a duty to request the return of the detainees, a request that must be complied with. 85 With respect to protected persons detained in an occupied territory, international humanitarian law mandates that they be detained only in the occupied territory and prohibits forcibly transferring them outside the occupied territory.86 The principle of non-refoulement in international human rights law is equally applicable to such transfers to the authority of another State. 27. While international humanitarian law does not contain specific rules on detainee transfers in non-international armed conflict, 87 such transfers are subject to the general principle of non-refoulement. Accordingly, the transferring State is obliged to conduct assessments of relevant risks of irreparable harm and, where real risk exists, to sufficiently address and mitigate it.88 When risk assessments indicate that the transfer would violate the principle of non-refoulement, the State that detained extraterritorially is required to either detain the individual on an alternative appropriate legal basis or to release the individual. 89 28. In practice, detainees have been transferred despite these obligations. In some instances, occupying powers have transferred protected persons for detention outside the 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 10 A/HRC/39/CRP.4, para. 21. A/HRC/37/42, paras. 28–29. A/73/907-S/2019/509, para. 86; www.unicef.org/sop/sites/unicef.org.sop/files/201912/Annual%20CAAC%20Bulletin%202018.pdf. A/HRC/39/CRP.4, paras. 22–25. Ibid., para. 26. www.unicef.org/sop/sites/unicef.org.sop/files/2019-12/Annual%20CAAC%20Bulletin%202018.pdf. A/HRC/39/CRP.5, para. 102. Third Geneva Convention, art. 12 (2) and (3); Fourth Geneva Convention, art. 45. Fourth Geneva Convention, arts. 49 (1) and 76 (1). Arguably, however, common article 3 to the Geneva Conventions prohibits the transfer to another State when there are substantial grounds to believe that it will result in ill-treatment or arbitrary deprivation of life. See ICRC, Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, para. 708. Committee against Torture, general comment No. 4, para. 18. Ibid., para. 12; CAT/C/GBR/CO/5, para. 19.