Manfred Nowak, the UN's special rapporteur on torture, visited several penitentiaries in central Kazakhstan this week, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Between May 4 and May 11, at the government's invitation, Nowak visited several detention centers and labor camps in the towns of Vishnevka, Dolinka, and Qarabas, places well-known to millions of former Soviet citizens as parts of the infamous gulag system.
Currently, more than 10,000 prisoners are serving out sentences in 10 labor camps and two detention centers in central Qaraghandy Oblast.
Nowak earlier held talks in Astana with Askar Shakirov, Kazakhstan's human rights commissioner.
Nowak's observations will be reported to the UN Council on Human Rights.