MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR NGOS 12 the Prevention of Torture (APT) and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) decided to publish a guide specifically aimed at showing NGOs how to set up a monitoring programme. This guide is really intended to give concrete advice and recommendations for all the various stages of the setting up of such an activity. The first part contains a general introduction on the importance of monitoring conditions of detention. Parts I and II are more particularly devoted to the question of designing and then implementing a monitoring programme of places of detention. Finally, the last part presents and comments upon the existing international standards, theme by theme, which embody all the elements that should be looked at during a visit. In Annex I, a checklist of such elements is presented. The guide provides general and indicative information for NGOs on monitoring places of detention and does not intend to be exhaustive. It is above all intended as a practical tool, giving advice, asking questions, and providing references to international standards. While it is primarily meant for organisations which are not yet visiting places of detention, it can also be useful to those already doing so regularly.