A/HRC/40/45 children, particularly bacha bazi. The event offered an opportunity to deliberate on awareness-raising, promoting accountability, and the need for a strategy to eliminate the practice of bacha bazi. During the reporting period, UNAMA/OHCHR, jointly with the task force, engaged with the Office of the Attorney General and the National Directorate of Security, advocating for the transfer of the child detainees from the National Directorate of Security to the Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre. The juvenile detainees were being held in an adult facility without charge, in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Juvenile Procedure Code. In November, 55 child detainees were transferred to the Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre, which is a first step towards their rehabilitation and provision of psychosocial support. V. Protection from arbitrary detention and respect for fair trial rights 41. UNAMA/OHCHR welcomes the progress made by the Government in implementing its commitments set out in the national plan on the elimination of torture. 42. In February, the Government adopted the revised Penal Code which contains a definition of torture broadly in line with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 43. In April, Afghanistan acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which requires the Government to establish an independent national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture and other forms of ill-treatment within one year of accession. In the same month, Afghanistan withdrew its reservation to the Convention against Torture, thereby recognizing the authority of the Committee against Torture to conduct confidential inquiries into allegations of torture on its territory. 44. In June, the Government submitted its follow-up report to the concluding observations of the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/AFG/CO/2/Add.1), outlining progress made in the implementation of some of the recommendations of the Committee regarding specific areas of concern, including the culture of impunity, coerced confessions and the death penalty (CAT/C/AFG/CO/2, paras. 8 (c), 28 (c) and 34 (a)). In a letter dated 23 October 2018, the Committee against Torture requested additional information from the State party. 45. In October, the anti-torture law was published in the official gazette. It sets out provisions on redress for victims of torture to bring legal claims before criminal and civil courts and establishes an anti-torture commission mandated, inter alia, to monitor places of detention and investigate allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. 46. Preliminary analysis of interviews conducted in the framework of UNAMA regular detention monitoring between 1 January 2017 and 15 October 2018 indicates an overall decrease during this period in the percentage of detainees interviewed who gave credible reports of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in the National Directorate of Security and Afghan National Police facilities. 6 Despite this downward trend, UNAMA/OHCHR notes that the number of credible reports of ill-treatment of those held in the custody of the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces remains high. VI. Death penalty 47. The revised Penal Code has significantly reduced the number of crimes to which the death penalty applies. UNAMA/OHCHR noted that the Government did not implement the death penalty in 2018. UNAMA/OHCHR continued to advocate for the Government to 6 8 UNAMA/OHCHR plan to release a public report on the treatment of conflict-related detainees held in the custody of Afghan National Defence and Security Forces covering the period 1 January 2017–31 December 2018 in the first half of 2019. The preliminary findings may be subject to change.