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To the United Nations:

· The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture should consistently address the issue of sexual abuse of women in custody as integral to his or her mandate to document, investigate and condemn torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In his or her reporting, the special rapporteur should identify and denounce in particular torture or cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment that takes the form of sexual abuse; investigate allegations of physical, including sexual, violence against women prisoners by police and prison or jail staff; and call for governments to provide effective remedies for such abuse.

· Consistent with its mandate to investigate "cases of detention imposed arbitrarily or otherwise inconsistently with the international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or in the relevant international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned," the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions should investigate cases in which women have been wrongfully detained as a result of discriminatory laws, in violation of their rights to equal protection before the law and to freedom from discrimination.

· The U.N. Human Rights Committee should continue to monitor the treatment of women in custody, in order to ensure respect for their rights to privacy, physical integrity, and freedom from torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

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