A/HRC/37/27 places of detention and report to the Ministry of Justice. In addition, the national human rights institution could inspect prisons. One requirement in the recruitment of prison staff was the human rights training and knowledge of prospective staff members. However, cultural change was difficult and depended on human rights awareness-raising. Torture prevention required public officials to query whether their actions were legal and ethical. He underlined the importance of human rights training courses, periodic sensitization campaigns, guidelines on the prevention of torture and a code of ethics. He highlighted the creation of the post of Ombudsman to receive complaints. Medical professionals working in places of detention should treat a detainee as any other patient. He described the protocol in place between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Justice to ensure that the free will of detainees on hunger strike was protected. He recognized that there was an issue in terms of prison overcrowding and explained that, to counter that situation, alternatives to incarceration at the pretrial and post-trial stages were being introduced. Six escort officers with human rights knowledge had been appointed to supervise that programme and reintegrate detainees into society. 34. In the discussion that followed, a representative of a member State admitted that it was difficult to care for drug-using detainees who needed methadone or viral therapies, and wondered how other States managed and if medical doctors were available in all places of detention. A representative of a national preventive mechanism asked if a medical doctor could be truly independent when examining a detainee in a police station and queried if it was realistic for a detainee to choose their own doctor instead of seeing the police/prison doctor. The question was raised of whether all lawyers and doctors knew about their responsibilities in preventing torture. The role that bar and medical associations, and universities, ought to play in ensuring that those professionals were aware of their responsibilities, duties and obligations was highlighted. It was also acknowledged that it was hard to know if everyone deprived of their liberty actually enjoyed their full legal rights. There was a suggestion that the solution might be to have surveillance cameras or written statements from a police officer, co-signed by the detainee or their lawyer. One response illustrated the role of custody officers in the United Kingdom, whereby specific police officers verified whether custody rights had been enjoyed by interviewing detainees as soon as they had been detained. Custody records could not be modified, were held in electronic form and recorded when detainees were moved. 35. A representative of an NGO underscored the importance of access to, and the presence of, a competent and independent lawyer prior to, and during, any police interview. The representative said that in counter-terrorism or national security cases, some States delayed access for a specific period or precluded access to the lawyer of the detainee’s choosing. The representative added that, to mitigate those problems in some States, an independent bar association assigned a lawyer who had immediate access to a detainee if access to the detainee’s lawyer of choice was denied or delayed. A representative of another NGO wanted to know what could be done when a lawyer failed to take a case because they feared repercussions from a State if they acted for a particular detainee. A representative of a third NGO spoke about the role of lawyers in reducing the number of people in pretrial detention, as pretrial detention had become routine and it was easier to prevent torture if people were not in detention. A representative of a different NGO asked about good practices in arranging legal assistance for detainees as soon as they were detained, highlighting the standard set by the Geneva Bar Association. The representative noted that, in some States, there was a lack of lawyers or lawyers did not wish to volunteer for such schemes, and wondered what could be done to facilitate legal assistance for detainees in such situations. C. Oversight and complaint mechanisms 36. The Chair of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture moderated the final session. The panellists were: Renate Kicker, former Vice-President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Nika Kvaratskhelia, Head of the Department of Prevention and Monitoring at 11