CAT/C/NER/CO/1
National Agency for Legal and Judicial Assistance (whose funding has been cut) under Act
No. 2011-42. Lastly, the Committee is concerned that persons have difficulty obtaining
access to doctors and lawyers from the time of their arrest, notwithstanding the applicable
community regulations of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (art. 2). 2
10.
The State party should:
(a)
Take the necessary measures, including legislative measures, to ensure
that, irrespective of the charges, the maximum duration of police custody does not
exceed 48 hours, with the possibility of one extension in duly justified exceptional
circumstances, in the light of the principles of necessity and proportionality;
(b)
Ensure that all convicted and remand prisoners are afforded, in law and
in practice, all fundamental legal safeguards from the outset of their deprivation of
liberty, including by ensuring that they are informed immediately of the accusations
and charges against them and that they are able to have prompt access to a lawyer or
to free legal aid throughout the proceedings, to inform a relative or another person of
their choice of their detention or arrest, to request and receive a medical examination
from an independent doctor and to have their deprivation of liberty recorded in
registers at all stages of the proceedings;
(c)
Provide all places of deprivation of liberty with standardized registers
and ensure that they are properly maintained;
(d)
Ensure the right of detainees to be brought before a judge after 48 hours
of police custody, at the very latest, or to be freed, and to challenge the legality of their
detention at any stage of the proceedings;
(e)
To continue efforts to put a definitive end, in all jurisdictions, to the
practice of mise à disposition, by which persons deprived of liberty are brought before
a judicial authority without a warrant;
(f)
Ensure that detainees have the right to request and obtain a medical
examination by a doctor of their choice and that medical reports are never used as
evidence that a person has not been subjected to torture. In addition, the State party
should provide the Committee with information on the number of cases in which a
medical report has not been issued and on the investigations carried out in these
circumstances;
(g)
Ensure that all public officials and all staff whose work relates to the
deprivation of liberty respect fundamental legal safeguards and ensure that the State
party’s next periodic report to the Committee contains information on the number of
complaints received regarding the failure to respect such safeguards and the outcome
of those complaints;
(h)
Ensure that persons facing trial have effective access to independent
justice, a defence and, where appropriate, legal aid;
(i)
Ensure that the bar examination is held on a regular basis, in order to
increase the number of lawyers available, encourage lawyers to settle in the regions
and allocate the resources needed to facilitate access to legal aid for all persons of
limited means;
(j)
Provide the human and financial resources needed to ensure the proper
functioning of the National Agency for Legal and Judicial Assistance and to facilitate
the establishment of local branches.
2
GE.19-22137
Regulation No. 05/CM/UEMOA of 25 September 2014 on the harmonization of the rules governing
the legal profession in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, art. 5 (1) (“Lawyers assist
their clients from the time they are first questioned, during the preliminary investigation, at police
stations or gendarmeries, and before prosecutors”).
3