A/HRC/22/53/Add.3 I. Approach to follow-up 1. This report is submitted to the Human Rights Council in accordance with Council resolution 16/23 by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 2. The Special Rapporteur has identified follow-up as one of his priorities. He seeks to build upon the good practices established by his predecessors to enhance the mandate's effectiveness of the implementation of recommendations made to States to try and establish a more systematic and consistent approach to follow-up and further strengthen the Special Procedures mechanism. 3. This report contains information provided by the State, and other stakeholders, including National Human Rights Institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), relating to the follow-up measures to the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur and his predecessors made after conducting country visits. Paragraph 5 (d) of Human Rights Council Resolution 16/23 on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment urges States “To ensure appropriate follow-up to the recommendations and conclusions of the Special Rapporteur.” The report submitted to the fifty ninth session of the Commission (E/CN.4/2003/68, para. 18), indicated that States to which visits have been carried out would regularly be reminded of the observations and recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur after such visits. Information would be requested on the consideration given to the recommendations, the steps taken to implement them, and any constraints that may prevent their implementation. Information from NGOs and other interested parties regarding measures taken in follow up to his recommendations would be welcome as well. 4. The Special Rapporteur takes note that the format of the follow-up report was modified in 2008 with the aim of rendering it more reader-friendly and of facilitating the identification of concrete steps taken in response to the specific recommendations and their results. In follow-up reports A/HRC/19/61/Add.3, A/HRC/16/52/Add.2, A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 and A/HRC/10/44/Add.5 tables were created for each State visited by the mandate holders in the past ten years. The tables contained the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur and his predecessors, a brief description of the situation when the country visit was undertaken, an overview of steps taken in previous years and included in previous follow-up reports and measures taken in the current year on the basis of information gathered by the Special Rapporteur, from governmental and non-governmental sources. 5. Starting from this present report, the methodology and format of the follow-up report has been further modified. In order to evaluate in a more in-depth manner, to what extent, recommendations following a country visit have been implemented, this report will adopt a cyclical follow-up structure with a two to four year time frame from the date when the visit was undertaken. This allows the Government time to prioritise and address timesensitive recommendations and allows time for implementation of policies and institutional changes that require a longer timeframe. 6. To further the work of the mandate, and in particular follow-up, the Special Rapporteur is overseeing a project, the Anti-Torture Initiative (ATI), supported by the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University, Washington College of Law to conduct follow-up visits to a State previously visited by the mandate holder, upon the invitation of the concerned Government. 7. The Special Rapporteur is engaged with Governments from previous visits he has undertaken, including Tunisia and Kyrgyzstan, to discuss potential follow-up visits for later 3