RESOLUTION ON GUIDELINES AND MEASURES FOR THE PROHIBITION AND PREVENTION OF TORTURE, CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT IN AFRICA C. Conditions of Detention States should: 33. Take steps to ensure that the treatment of all persons deprived of their liberty are in conformity with international standards guided by the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.3 34. Take steps to improve conditions in places of detention, which do not conform to international standards. 35. Take steps to ensure that pre-trial detainees are held separately from convicted persons. 36. Take steps to ensure that juveniles, women, and other vulnerable groups are held in appropriate and separate detention facilities. 37. Take steps to reduce overcrowding in places of detention by, inter alia, encouraging the use of non-custodial sentences for minor crimes. D. Mechanisms of Oversight States should: 38. Ensure and support the independence and impartiality of the judiciary including by ensuring that there is no interference in the judiciary and judicial proceedings, guided by the UN Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary.4 39. Encourage professional legal and medical bodies to concern themselves with issues of the prohibition and prevention of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. 40. Establish and support effective and accessible complaint mechanisms which are independent from detention and enforcement authorities and which are empowered to receive, investigate and take appropriate action on allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 3 4 10 UN ECOSOC Res. 663 C (XXIV), 31 July 1957, amended by UN ECOSOC Res. 2076 (LXII), 13 May 1977 UN Doc. E/CN.4/1995/39 THE ROBBEN ISLAND GUIDELINES