13 2. Any male offender, above the age of sixteen years, on being convicted before the High Court of any of the offences mentioned in the Schedule, may be ordered by the Court to be flogged in addition to any other punishment to which he is liable. 6. A sentence of flogging shall be carried out as soon as may be practicable and shall in no case be carried out after the expiration of six months from the passing of the sentence. 7. The instrument to be used for carrying out a sentence of flogging shall be the ordinary cat-o-nine tails and for carrying out a sentence of whipping a rod of tamarind, birch or other switches or in either case such other instrument as the President may from time to time approve. 49(8). The “cat-o-nine tails” consists of a plaited rope instrument of nine knotted thongs of cotton cord, each of which is approximately 30 inches long and less than one quarter of an inch in diameter. The thongs are attached to a handle. The nine cotton thongs are lashed across the back of the subject, between the shoulders and the lower area of the spine. 49(9). The Corporal Punishment (Offenders Over Sixteen) Act of 1953 was amended in 1994 and in 2000. The 1994 amendment provided for the suspension of the original six-month time limit for the carrying out of a sentence of corporal punishment while an appeal is pending. The 2000 amendment provides that corporal punishment may be administered only to persons over the age of 18. 49(10). Sections 4 a) and b), 5 b), and 6(1) and (3) of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago provide as follows: 4. It is hereby recognized and declared that in Trinidad and Tobago there have existed and shall continue to exist […]: the right of the individual to life, liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of property and the right no to be deprived thereof except by due process of law; the right of the individual to equality before the law and the protection of the law; 5. (2) […The] Parliament may not: […] b) impose or authorize the imposition of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment […] c) deprive a person who has been arrested or detainediii. of the right to be brought promptly before an appropriate judicial authority; […] e) deprive a person of the right to a fair hearing in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice for the determination of his rights and obligations; […] 6. (1) Nothing in sections 4 and 5 shall invalidate an existing law […] (3) In this section- […] “existing law” means a law that had effect as part of the law of Trinidad and Tobago immediately before the commencement of this Constitution, and includes any enactment referred to in Subsection (1) […]