16 83. After conducting investigations in Peru between April 1995 and May 1999, the CAT noted the systematic practice of torture as a police investigative method and said that the existence of laws that treated such abuses permissively “leads the Committee members to conclude that torture has been 54 occurring with the authorities’ acquiescence.” 84. At the same time that the antiterrorist legislation encouraged the institutionalization of torture, the penal regime it established was also extremely severe. Article 20 of Decree Law No. 25475, the text of which was included in Article 3 of Decree Law No. 25744, provided as follows: The prison sentences established in this Decree Law shall be served, obligatorily, in maximum security detention centers, in continuous solitary confinement for the first year of the sentence and then with obligatory labor for the length of the incarceration. In no circumstances, and under the responsibility of the establishment’s director, may convicts share their single-person cells. This 55 disciplinary regime shall remain in force until they are released. 85. That law remained in force until the enactment of Supreme Decree No. 005-97-JUS on June 24, 1997, which established the “Regulations for the Living and Treatment Regime for Inmates 56 Charged with or Convicted of the Crimes of Terrorism and/or Treason against the Fatherland.” 3. Widespread use of sexual violence in the counterinsurgency effort, including in interrogations of people suspected of belonging to insurgent groups 86. According to the CVR, the use of sexual violence in Peru’s counterinsurgency effort was part of “a broader context of discrimination against women, who are considered vulnerable and whose bodies are used by the perpetrators with no apparent motive or any strict connection to the internal armed 57 conflict.” 87. A considerable proportion of the testimonies involving sexual violence given to the CVR were from women who reported having been attacked, raped, and humiliated at police facilities, particularly at the DINCOTE’s headquarters in the city of Lima: The premises in Lima of the National Antiterrorism Directorate (DINCOTE) are worthy of particular note. It has been identified by a large number of the CVR’s informants as a place where repeated sexual violence took place. The mistreatment began when the detainees were taken into custody, with the perpetrators identifying themselves as members of the DINCOTE, according to the 58 testimony. Mistreatment continued as they were taken to that facility. 88. The CVR reported that several women interrogated at DINCOTE premises were stripped naked, insulted, groped, subjected to penile penetration, and, in some cases, to vaginal or anal 59 penetration with inanimate objects. It also said that those practices were common during arbitrary arrests by police officers, who generally bound their victims’ eyes or wore hoods during the attacks to 60 prevent identification. 54 United Nations Committee against Torture, Inquiry Under Article 20: Peru, 05/2001.A/56/44, para. 164, available at: www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/A.56.44,paras.144-193.Sp?Opendocument. 55 Decree Law No. 25475 of May 5, 1992, available on the web site of the Congress of the Republic of Peru: www.congreso.gob.pe/ntley/Imagenes/Leyes/25475.pdf. 56 Annex 1: Official Journal El Peruano, June 25, 1997, pp. 150278 to 150281, Supreme Decree No. 005-97-JUS. 57 Final Report of the CVR, 2003, Vol. VI, 1.5 Sexual Violence against Women, p. 337, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 58 Final Report of the CVR, 2003, Vol. VI, 1.5 Sexual Violence against Women, p. 322, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 59 Final Report of the CVR, 2003, Vol. VI, 1.5 Sexual Violence against Women, pp. 308, 309, 328, 329, and 330, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php. 60 Final Report of the CVR, 2003, Vol. VI, 1.5 Sexual Violence against Women, pp. 348 and 349, available at: www.cverdad.org.pe/ifinal/index.php.