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America – Felipe Villavicencio Terreros. The regional teams examine the implementation of
the Optional Protocol within their region, reporting to the Subcommittee in plenary, with
recommendations as appropriate.
7.
The Subcommittee’s permanent and ad hoc working groups met as required and as
they were able during 2018. Further information on their meetings is provided in section IV
below. The Subcommittee considers that meeting in subgroups and working groups
facilitates discussion of a broad range of issues in an efficient, focused and participatory
fashion.
8.
At its thirty-fifth session, the Subcommittee met with representatives of the
Association for the Prevention of Torture, the Convention against Torture Initiative and the
Omega Research Foundation, and was briefed on the latest developments in the global study
on children deprived of liberty. The Omega Research Foundation presented to the
Subcommittee its research on monitoring weapons and restraints in places of detention.
9.
At its thirty-sixth session, the Subcommittee held an informal meeting with the States
parties and signatories to the Optional Protocol; 26 States parties attended the two-hour
meeting.
10.
At its thirty-sixth session, the Subcommittee, together with the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, met with the
Committee against Torture, and, with facilitation and participation by the Association for the
Prevention of Torture, discussed proposals for a protocol on non-coercive investigative
interviewing.
C.
Visits conducted during the reporting period
11.
The Subcommittee undertook six official visits in 2018 in accordance with its mandate
under articles 11–13 of the Optional Protocol, to Uruguay (4–15 March), Belize (22–28
April), Portugal (1–10 May), Poland (8–19 July), Kyrgyzstan (11–22 September) and Liberia
(29 October–2 November). During its thirty-fifth session, in June 2018, the Subcommittee
also decided to terminate its visit to Rwanda that had been suspended in October 2017, due
to a lack of cooperation from the Government. The fact that the Subcommittee was unable to
resume and complete its visit to Rwanda also explains the lower number of visits undertaken
during 2018.
12.
During the course of its official visits in 2018, the Subcommittee conducted over
1,000 individual or collective interviews, mainly with detainees but also with officials, law
enforcement personnel and medical staff. It visited, inter alia, 34 prisons, 53 police stations,
11 juvenile detention centres, 8 psychiatric and health-care institutions and 3 closed migrant
centres.
13.
Further factual information is available in the press releases issued following each
visit and Subcommittee session.
D.
Dialogue arising from visits, including publication of the
Subcommittee’s reports by States parties and national preventive
mechanisms
14.
The substantive aspects of the dialogue arising from visits are confidential. Reports
are made public only with the consent of the recipient. By the end of 2018, the Subcommittee
had transmitted a total of 78 visit reports to States parties and national preventive mechanisms,
including 10 within the reporting period to Hungary (State party), Mauritania (State party
and national preventive mechanism), Mongolia (State party), Portugal (State party and
national preventive mechanism), Spain (State party and national preventive mechanism) and
Uruguay (State party and national preventive mechanism). A total of 41 visit reports have
been made public following requests from States parties or national preventive mechanisms
under article 16 (2) of the Optional Protocol, including 7 in 2018, namely the reports
addressed to the State party arising from the visits of the Subcommittee to Benin, the
Plurinational State of Bolivia, and Mongolia, and the reports addressed to the national
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