E/CN.4/2003/24 page 22 3. Observations of the Special Rapporteur 8. The Special Rapporteur appreciates the prompt and detailed response that the Government of Germany provided in regard to the three allegations presented. In the case of Doviodo Adekou, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the information stating that after the incident the District Administration adopted measures to improve the conditions under which arrests are carried out, including appropriate training in arrest techniques. The Special Rapporteur takes the opportunity to recommend that such efforts be accompanied by additional measures aimed at ensuring that “police and immigration authorities treat migrants in a dignified and non-discriminatory manner, in accordance with international standards, through, inter alia, organizing specialized training courses for administrators, police officers, immigration officials and other interested groups”, in accordance with the Programme of Action of the World Conference Against Racism (art. 30 (e)). The Special Rapporteur would appreciate receiving the final conclusions of the investigations currently under way both in the cases of both Doviodo Adekou and Svetlana Lauer. B. Spain 1. Joint communications submitted on 4 September 2002 by the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants 9. The Special Rapporteurs have received information on the following cases. 10. Boaventura Simão Vaz, a national of Guinea-Bissau and a mechanic by trade, alleged that he was arrested on 1 March 2001 while sitting in the company of two other persons in a Madrid bar. According to the information received, a plain clothes National Police officer asked him for his papers. He was then pushed outside, handcuffed and taken to a police station, where he was informed that he was suspected of drug trafficking. He denied the accusation. He claims to have witnessed, on the premises of the police station, the beating of another person in police custody, whom he had tried to defend. Three officers then punched and kicked him, threw him to the ground and threatened him with a weapon. They also subjected him to racial slurs, calling him a “dirty Black”. Boaventura Simão Vaz states that he did not receive any medical assistance at the police station. He subsequently went to the emergency room of San Carlos hospital, where he complained of a sharp pain in the left side of his chest. On 7 March 2001, the hospital drew up a report stating that he had five broken ribs and internal haemorrhaging; he was hospitalized for several days. On 13 March, the victim lodged a complaint with a Madrid court. 11. Marta Elena Arce, a Costa Rican anthropologist living in Catalonia since 1999, claims that she was arrested for having assaulted a police officer on 2 April 2001, in the Plaza de Cataluña in Barcelona, where she met other immigrants every day. Before her arrest, she claims to have taken part in the occupation of the Church of Santa María del Pi in Barcelona; the occupation was organized by immigrants to protest the Government’s immigration policy. On the day of her arrest, four or five police officers who had been informed of the theft of a mobile phone approached the group of immigrants and asked them to show their mobile phones. Marta Elena Arce asked why she and her friends had been asked to produce their mobile phones, and an argument ensued. She claims that the police officers insulted her, calling her a “dirty