TABLE 3 : INTERNATIONAL VISITING MECHANISMS TYPE LEGAL BASE CHARACTERISTICS Universal mechanisms UN Thematic Procedure • Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; • Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions; • Working Group on Forced or Involuntary Disappearances; • Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Resolutions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights • Prior agreement by the State concerned; • Limited and one-off visits; • Recommendations issued on the basis of information communicated to the Rapporteur and verified, or following visits carried out in the country concerned; • Recommendations without binding character for States; • Public reports presented at the session of the Human Rights Commission. Committee against Torture Article 20 of the Convention of the United Nations (1984) • Can only visit States Parties to the Convention; • Visits only in the case of “systematic torture”; • Authorisation by the State; • Confidential procedure. International Committee of the Red Cross On the basis of the Geneva Conventions (1949) for situations of conflict; On the basis of an agreement with the State for other situations. • Monitoring of conditions of detention targeted at persons arrested and detained in relation with a situation of conflict. In certain situations, monitoring extends to other categories of persons deprived of their liberty; • In the situation of an international conflict, the States Parties to the conflict are obliged to authorise visits to military internees and civilian nationals of the foreign power involved in the conflict. In other situations, visits are subject to prior agreement by the authorities; • Permanent visits during the situation of conflict or its direct consequences; • Confidential reports. Regional mechanism European Committee for the Prevention of Torture European Convention for the Prevention of Torture (1987) • Visits only to States Parties to the Convention; • Unlimited access: at any moment to any place where a person is deprived of his or her liberty; • Periodic and ad hoc visits (“required by the circumstances”); • Reports theoretically confidential, but their publication has become the rule