CAT/C/69/3 helping it to expedite the consideration of a number of important issues. While welcoming this positive development, the Subcommittee remains of the view that an additional plenary meeting, accompanied by a corresponding increase in its secretariat human and financial resources, is necessary for it to be able to fulfil its mandated functions effectively. C. Regional teams 44. The regional teams and the respective country rapporteurs have continued to engage extensively with national preventive mechanisms, which has included but not been limited to providing feedback on annual reports, and addressing queries made by national preventive mechanisms and providing them with substantive and practical information in countryspecific contexts. The extensive use of videoconferencing during meetings of regional teams allowed them to engage with a considerable number of State parties and national preventive mechanisms at each session. Improved videoconferencing facilities would further enhance the quality of such exchanges. D. Views regarding the operation of a national preventive mechanism 45. In 2019, questions were raised concerning proposed structural changes to the national preventive mechanism in Brazil. Following requests for guidance, the Subcommittee issued a document entitled “Views of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture on the compatibility of Presidential Decree No. 9.831/2019 with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture”. The Subcommittee welcomes the positive response to the issuance of these views, and looks forward to further dialogue with both the mechanism and the State party on the matters raised. The document has been issued as a public document of the Subcommittee and posted on its website,7 given that it offers views that are of general relevance to all State parties and national preventive mechanisms. V. Looking forward 46. The work of the Subcommittee was seriously affected by resourcing constraints in 2019; indeed, even the thirty-ninth session of the Subcommittee was, for a period, at risk of cancellation. Programmed visits will now have to be made in 2020, reducing the capacity of the Subcommittee to visit other State parties, which it had hoped to do. The Subcommittee is well aware that the financial crisis affecting the treaty body system has not gone away, and that its plan of work for 2020 cannot be guaranteed. Once again, it is necessary to stress that the real victims of this situation are those at risk of torture and detainees around the world, many of whom languish in the most inhuman of situations. 47. The Subcommittee is also aware that there is a need for it to support the establishment of national preventive mechanisms in an increasing number of State parties since not all have fulfilled their obligation to establish such mechanisms. All States are required to establish their national preventive mechanisms within a year of ratification unless they have delayed that obligation by making a declaration as provided for under article 26 of the Optional Protocol. Currently 22 States are not in compliance with this obligation. There are also significant regional variations: 13 are in Africa (55 per cent of all State parties in the region), four in Asia-Pacific (33 per cent of all State parties in the region), four in Latin America and the Caribbean (25 per cent of all State parties in the region) and one in Eastern Europe (5 per cent of State parties in the region). All State parties from the Western European and Other Group have done so. Much work therefore remains to be done to ensure a global culture of compliance. The Subcommittee is committed to that task and seeks to assist all States in whatever way it can to support the establishment and operation of a national preventive mechanism compliant with the Optional Protocol. This requires, however, that State parties have the will to do so; in an increasing number of State parties, the Subcommittee doubts that this is the case. 48. In recent years, the Subcommittee has compiled a list of States whose establishment of a national preventive mechanism is more than three years overdue (see para. 26 above). 7 www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/OPCAT/Pages/AdvicesToNPMS.aspx. 9