4
I.
ACTIVITIES IN 1995
A.
Visits
1.
The CPT carried out six periodic visits during 1995. The countries visited were, in chronological order,
Slovenia (19 to 28 February), Bulgaria (26 March to 7 April), Portugal (14 to 26 May), the Slovak Republic (25
June to 7 July), Malta (16 to 21 July) and Italy (22 October to 3 November). In the case of Italy, Malta and
Portugal, this was the second occasion on which they had been visited on a periodic basis.
2.
The CPT also carried out a visit to Romania, from 24 September to 6 October 1995. Romania had not
yet ratified the Convention when the CPT drew up and announced its programme of periodic visits for 1995.
However, following the entry into force of the Convention in respect of Romania on 1 February 1995, it
appeared appropriate to the Committee to carry out a visit in the course of that year. This decision was
motivated in particular by the high priority accorded by the CPT to visits to Central and Eastern European
States which have recently become Parties to the Convention.
3.
The places of detention visited by CPT delegations in 1995 are set out in Appendix 3; it will be
observed that the CPT is paying increasing attention to holding facilities for foreigners and institutions for
minors. The Committee intends to set out in its next general report some of the main issues pursued by CPT
delegations when visiting holding facilities for foreigners.
4.
As in previous years, during 1995 the degree of co-operation displayed towards CPT visiting
delegations at ministerial level has almost invariably been very satisfactory. Co-operation received at local
level, in the course of visits to places of detention, was also on the whole good.
This generally positive assessment applies equally to the Central and Eastern European States visited in
1995.
5.
From time to time, visiting delegations encountered difficulties in gaining access to the detention
facilities of law enforcement agencies, in particular when visits took place in the evening. One argument
advanced in this connection has been that the delegation's right of access is limited to "office hours", another
that a visit could not take place at the time in question as this would wake the detainees.
Difficulties of the kind described above have always been overcome after contact with the Committee's
liaison officers. Nevertheless, the CPT wishes to emphasise that the Convention authorises the Committee to
visit "at any time" places where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority. Needless to say,
when exercising this right of access, CPT visiting delegations shall always show due respect for the rest of
detained persons.