A/HRC/34/13 liberty, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, except in accordance with procedures prescribed by law. Contraventions of all those provisions were offences under penal law. A bill to amend the Penal Code would proscribe genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. 8. Capital punishment for homicide was permitted only if the victim’s next of kin refused the blood money that courts could order as an alternative. Appeals against a death penalty sentence could be made to the courts of appeal and thereafter to the Supreme Court. 9. The constitutional right to a fair trial meant that an accused person was considered innocent until proven guilty and that a person arrested in connection with an offence must be informed at the time of the arrest of the reasons for it and must not be held in detention for more than 24 hours before being brought before a judge. In the case of a serious offence, an accused person unable to afford the costs of a defence had to be provided with legal aid from government funds. 10. Regulatory frameworks were being put into place to improve the performance of the justice sector. However, justice sector personnel and infrastructure in cities affected by conflict were in dire need of rebuilding. The Government was soliciting financial support for that purpose from its international partners. 11. The recruitment of children under 18 years of age into the armed forces was prohibited by the Transitional Constitution and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) Act. As a result of a revised action plan signed with the United Nations, 821 boys and girls had been released from the army and 540 had been released from militia groups in 2013 alone. A child protection unit had been established within the army, with staff trained by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). 12. To combat impunity in the national army, SPLA members who had committed offences against civilians and property had been tried and convicted. Suspects were in detention following the events at the Terrain Hotel in July 2016. The court established to try offences committed jointly by members of SPLA, the National Security Service and the police while on duty had convicted 35 persons. 13. With the support of United Nations police, the Government had developed a strategic training plan for the national police force. United Nations police had also provided human rights training modules for police cadets. As a result of the training, special units led by female police officers had been established to deal with issues relating to women and children, such as gender-based violence. 14. In spite of measures to improve prison conditions by providing separate cells for men, women and juveniles and for pretrial detainees, the 11 central and 79 county prisons were still overcrowded. Two new prisons had been built and seven had been renovated, with support from international partners, and all provided health-care services on site. 15. The Transitional Constitution set out the right to decent housing and a legal framework recognizing customary law and practices related to land had been established under the Land Act. 16. Before conflict had broken out in December 2013, the estimated population of resettled internally displaced persons had been 390,000. In May 2016, the Government had ordered the eviction of persons who had illegally occupied houses or land in the wake of the conflict. The Government intended to facilitate the relocation of internally displaced persons to places of their choice and was soliciting from international partners technical, financial and capacity-building assistance to facilitate their reception in the cities of Malakal, Bor, Bentiu, Juba and Wau. 4