MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE TYPE LEGAL BASIS 43 CHARACTERISTICS Regional mechanisms European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) 5 6 7 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture (1987) • Visits to States Parties to the Convention; • Established for the purpose of conducting preventive visits; • 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. Given that the State did not make a declaration under article 20. The Sub-Committee will be established 6 months after the entry into force of the Optional Protocol, which is upon the 20th ratification. The IACHR applies the Declaration to those member states who are not a party to the Convention.