134. Article 293 of Ordinance No. 66-156, amended by Law No. 06-22 of 20 December 2006, inflicts rigorous imprisonment for life on any person who subjects another person who has been abducted, arrested, detained or sequestrated to physical torture. 135. As a preventive measure, new rules have been introduced in the Code of Criminal Procedure, referring specifically to preliminary investigations conducted by the judicial police, with the aim of providing mechanisms to ensure the humane treatment of persons held in police custody and to monitor the use of such procedures (through medical examinations of detainees by decision of the public prosecutor or at the request of their family or legal counsel, and monitoring of the manner in which the police custody is conducted). A medical examination is mandatory at the conclusion of the period of police custody.18 136. Regarding capital punishment, it should be noted that Algeria has been observing a moratorium on death penalty since 1993. This sentence is not imposed on persons below the age of 18. Sentences are deferred for pregnant women and women with children below twenty-four (24) months. The 2001 and 2002 amendments of the Penal Code led to the abolition of the death penalty for all property offences. 137. Law No. 04-15 of 10 November 2004, amending and complementing the Penal Code, includes a section 341 bis which penalises sexual harassment. 138. Imprisonment for debt in contractual relations has been removed from the new Code of Civil and Administrative Procedure. Article 5: Torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment 139. The people of Algeria, having been victims of a colonial exploitation policy for several decades, resolved to put an end to practices of exploitation, debasement, slavery and trafficking in persons. 140. Guaranteed by the various Constitutions of Algeria since independence (1963-1976-1996), the determination to abolish feudal practices has included the ratification of a number of international legal instruments and the implementation of national legal and judicial reforms. 141. Regarding the abolition of exploitation and slavery, the Constitution guarantees the principle of “ending exploitation of man by man” and prohibits “feudal, regionalist and nepotistic practices…” (Articles 8 and 9). 142. Algeria has ratified the following main international instruments: - 1926 Slavery Convention, amended by the Protocol of 7 September 1953;19 - Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and Practices Similar to Slavery;20 - Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others;21 - Additional Protocol to the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children;22 and 18 Sections 51 bis 1 para. 2, and 52 para. 6 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 19 Decree No. 63-340 of 11 September 1963 20 Idem. 21 Decree No. 63-341 of 11 September 1963 24