4. The OSCE and implementation of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture 4.1 Overview of the Protocol: National Preventive Mechanisms and the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture OPCAT came into force in June 2006 and is the newest torture-prevention tool in international law. A major feature of the Protocol is the requirement to create or designate a detentionmonitoring body at the national level, known as an NPM. This should be created (or designated) one year after the Protocol’s entry into force or its ratification. The word “preventive” highlights a distinctive feature of this body or collection of bodies. It should visit places of deprivation of liberty systematically, rather than in response to specific individual or group allegations of torture and ill-treatment, in order to have a preventive effect on these phenomena. While monitoring places of deprivation of liberty is a major focus of the work of the NPMs, their mandate goes wider, encompassing the right to submit proposals or comment on relevant draft legislation. The Protocol also mentions that relevant authorities should publish and disseminate the annual report of the NPMs and engage in dialogue with regard to their recommendations Among other things, states must guarantee this body the necessary financial resources, expertise and unfettered access to all places of deprivation of liberty. Its independence must also be ensured and parties to the Protocol must publish and distribute its annual reports. More specific issues with regard to the development of NPMs will be examined below, in Section 4.2. The Protocol also established the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture. This body is currently composed of ten members and is mandated with visiting places of deprivation of liberty under the jurisdiction of States Parties, in addition to supporting the establishment and capacity building of NPMs under the Protocol. The Subcommittee may also make confidential recommendations to States Parties and NPMs and issues reports that may be made public if a state so requests. In view of the current (and potential) number of parties to the Protocol, it is clear that the Subcommittee will have a limited capacity to conduct regular visits to all eligible countries. With its current strength of ten members, and with 43 countries to potentially visit at the time of writing, the Subcommittee estimates it will only be able to visit each country on an average of once every nine years.22 Thus, the NPMs 22 “First Annual Report of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, February 2007 to March 2008”, Official Documents System of the United Nations website, http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/418/28/PDF/G0841828.pdf?OpenElement 32