BACKGROUND 1 – BACKGROUND The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture (National Agency) is Germany’s designated national preventive mechanism, and it thus operates at the interface between domestic law and the relevant international treaties, primarily the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN Convention against Torture). Details regarding the National Agency’s special status and other background information regarding its structure will be provided in the following. three research assistants and an administrative assistant. Pursuant to the Administrative Agreement between the Federal Government and the Länder on the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture, the Federal Agency and the Joint Commission must coordinate the planning and implementation of their activities, to which end they hold regular joint meetings. They are supported by the Secretariat. 1.2 – TASKS AND POWERS The principle task of the National Agency is to visit those facilities in which people are deprived of their liberty (“places of detention”), to draw attention to problems and to make recommendations and suggestions to the authorities for improving the situation of detainees and for preventing torture and other ill-treatment. In accordance with Article 4 para. 1 of the OP-CAT, such places of detention are any place under a State Party’s jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its explicit consent or acquiescence. Within the remit of the Federal Government, these include some 280 detention facilities of the Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), of the Federal Police (Bundespolizei) and of the customs authorities. The Federal Agency is also responsible for monitoring forced returns which are accompanied by the Federal Police. However, the overwhelming majority of places of detention fall within the remit of the Joint Commission: 186 organisationally independent prisons, 1,430 Land police stations, 326 psychiatric hospitals, all those courts which have holding cells, seven facilities enforcing custody pending deportation, and 27 child and youth welfare facilities with closed wings. Some 11,000 homes for the elderly and nursing homes are also classed as places of detention in this sense of the meaning. The National Agency is unable to visit all of these facilities. However, any recommendations which it has made in regard to specific problems should not only be taken up and implemented by the facilities concerned but also by all those facilities which are faced with the same problem. That is another reason why the National Agency summarises its visits in this Annual Report. The National Agency is also called upon to make suggestions and observations regarding existing and 1.1 – INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK The prevention of torture and ill-treatment is laid down in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OP-CAT). It supplements the UN Convention against Torture of 1984 by adopting a preventive approach. In Germany, the task of prevention as set out in Article 3 of the OP-CAT is carried out by the Federal Agency for the Prevention of Torture (Federal Agency), which is responsible for facilities run at federal level, and by the Joint Commission of the Länder for the Prevention of Torture (Joint Commission), which is responsible for facilities at Länder (federal state) level. These two bodies work together under the umbrella of the National Agency. They constitute the national preventive mechanism as referred to in Article 3 of the OP-CAT. According to Article 18 of the OP-CAT, the States Parties are obliged to guarantee the functional independence of the national preventive mechanisms and to make available the necessary financial resources. The Federal Ministry of Justice nominates a Director and a Deputy Director to the Federal Agency. The Conference of the Ministers of Justice of the Länder nominates the Chair and three further members of the Joint Commission. The members of the National Agency are not subject to any technical or legal supervision and are independent in the exercise of their functions. They act on an honorary basis and may resign their office at any time. They may only be removed before the end of their term in office subject to the conditions set out in sections 21 and 24 of the German Judiciary Act. The National Agency is based in Wiesbaden. Its Secretariat is staffed with 14