CAT/C/44/2* 17. The Subcommittee has held discussions with the OPCAT Contact Group10 on the scope of prevention of torture. To that end two working meetings were organized during the eighth and ninth sessions of the Subcommittee. 18. Whether or not torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment occurs in practice in a given State, there is always a need for States to be vigilant in order to guard against the risk of it occurring and to put in place and maintain effective and comprehensive safeguards to protect persons deprived of their liberty. It is the role of preventive mechanisms to ensure that such safeguards are actually in place and operating effectively and to make recommendations to improve the system of safeguards, both in law and in practice, and thereby the situation of persons deprived of their liberty. 19. In examining examples of both good and bad practice, the Subcommittee seeks to build upon existing protections, to close the gap between theory and practice and to eliminate, or reduce to a minimum, the possibilities for torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. III. Visiting places of deprivation of liberty A. Planning the work of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture in the field 20. During its third year of operation, the Subcommittee selected the States to be visited by a reasoned process, with reference to the principles indicated in article 2 of the Optional Protocol. The factors taken into consideration in the choice of countries to be visited were date of ratification, establishment of a national preventive mechanism, geographical distribution, size and complexity of State, regional preventive monitoring, and urgent issues reported. 21. The Subcommittee limited its programme of visits to three this year because of budgetary constraints, although it takes the view that, after the initial period of development, its visits programme in the medium term should involve 10 visits per 12month period. This annual rate of visits is based on the conclusion that, to visit the 50 States parties effectively in order to prevent ill-treatment, the Subcommittee would have to visit each State party at least once every four to five years on average. In the Subcommittee’s view, less frequent visits could jeopardize effective support to and reinforcement of national preventive mechanisms in the fulfilment of their role and the protection afforded to persons deprived of liberty. 22. To that end, the Subcommittee has prepared for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) detailed and reasoned budgetary calculations for its future work (see section VI below). 23. As regards the methodology and logistics of its visits, the Subcommittee requests information from the State party to be visited concerning the legislation and institutional and system features related to deprivation of liberty, as well as statistical and other information concerning their operation in practice. This is summarized in a country brief, which is a vital tool for mapping the situation of prevention of torture in the country to be visited. 10 8 For the membership of the OPCAT Contact Group, see annex VI. GE.10-41876