A/HRC/7/67 page 9 Currently the police payroll system is not incorporated into the national payroll system; police officers are therefore required to travel to police headquarters in Monrovia to obtain their pay cheque. 25. Though improving detention conditions in prisons is a security priority for the Ministry of Justice, conditions remain very poor, with complaints of lack of food and potable water being widespread in Saniquellie central prison. Detainees’ relatives were forced to bribe guards to allow them to bring food to detainees. 26. Prison officers receive payment equal to that of members of the Liberian National Police. In many rural areas, separate cells have been established for female prisoners. There are 139 trained prison officers throughout the country; there is therefore a great need for additional corrections officers, especially female ones. 27. The UNMIL Human Rights and Protection Section has received frequent reports of misconduct by police officers in the execution of their duties. Such allegations range from mistreatment in detention to corrupt practices. IV. PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS A. Human rights on rubber plantations 28. On the Guthrie rubber plantation in Bomi County, there are two categories of salary: fixed salary for teachers, nurses, management and security staff, and production salary for rubber tappers, based on quantity of latex/cup lumps produced per month. A tapper gets $160 per month if he or she produces a ton of rubber. No basic salary is offered; non-producing workers therefore receive no salary. 29. Labour unions for rubber plantation workers remain weak: on the Guthrie rubber plantation, since there is no workers union, workers channel their grievances and problems through their own grievance council. 30. The provision of medical services on the Guthrie rubber plantation is extremely poor: there is only one clinic, with 54 staff and one doctor catering for over 17,000 inhabitants. Sanitary conditions are also very poor. There are 28 hand pumps constructed throughout the plantation; latrines are present only in a few of the camps. 31. With regard to housing, only nursing and teaching staff are provided with reasonable housing units, while the rest of the employees, especially rubber tappers, live in dilapidated units. On the Cavalla rubber plantation, clean and safe drinking water is only available to about 10 per cent of the population; existing wells are not safe for drinking. Furthermore, environmental protection and occupational health and safety do not appear to be a part of the plantation’s current management scheme. 32. At present, concession agreements do not systematically include the provision of minimum standards of basic services for workers. A pilot project to this effect is currently under way at the Firestone rubber plantation, the largest in Liberia.

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