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on the renewal of the measures following an annual review of the legislation by an independent reviewer; regular periodic statutory reviews of a person's detention under the powers of extended detention; and the right to legal advice and to have someone informed of one's arrest. The exercise of those two rights could in no circumstances be delayed for more than 48 hours.
13.
All the provisions of the Northern Ireland Emergency Provisions Act had been thoroughly considered by Parliament when it had re-enacted that measure in 1991. Two new safeguards had also been proposed for the questioning of terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland. Conditions of detention were currently regulated by the Code of Conduct of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the rules being set out in the Northern Ireland "Guide to the Emergency Powers". That Guide was soon to be replaced by a statutory Code of Practice, admissible in civil and criminal proceedings governing the detention, treatment, questioning and identification by police officers of persons detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The Government was also considering the appointment of an independent commissioner to monitor procedures at holding centres, with the remit to visit those centres at any time of his or her choosing. The commissioner's main task would be to ensure that the proper procedures relating to the treatment of terrorist suspects were being followed and, more generally, that the arrangements for the detention of suspects were satisfactory.
14.
Mr. BURNS (Country Rapporteur) thanked the United Kingdom delegation for its very full report, which contained information, especially with regard to the treatment of children and the treatment of persons detained under mental health legislation, that had never been offered in any other report the Committee had had to consider over the past four years. He would first ask a few general questions and then raise some specific points relating to Northern Ireland, since the report showed that there was a marked difference between the regime applied in England, Scotland and Wales and that applied in Northern Ireland.
15. Paragraph 7 of the report stated that confessions made by an accused person could not be given in evidence against him if they had been obtained by "oppression". What precisely was meant by that term? While oppression would no doubt include torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or the use of or threat of violence, he suspected that its scope might be even wider. He would also like to know where that prohibition was enshrined in United Kingdom legislation and whether it was part of common law or statutory law. Paragraph 13 stated that torture had been made an offence under section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. What was the penalty imposed for that offence and was the definition of torture in the Act couched in terms identical to the definition contained in the Convention?
16. As to extradition and return, he was not sure whether the grounds for refusal set out in paragraphs 18 and 19 were sufficient to meet all the obligations the United Kingdom had assumed under article 3 of the Convention. Thus, paragraph 19 (c) stated that an order for return might be refused if the accusation was not made "in good faith". What would be the situation if a country which did not conform to the same standards as States parties to the Convention made an order for return in what it considered to be good faith? The phrase "in the interests of justice" in the same paragraph also seemed to
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