MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE 41 against Torture, to be established under the OPCAT, will also be able to carry out regular visits to places where persons are deprived of their liberty, regardless of whether any complaint has been received and with no prior authorisation from the State Party concerned. TABLE 1 : INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL VISITING MECHANISMS TYPE LEGAL BASIS CHARACTERISTICS International 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 Committee against Torture Sub-Committee to the Committee against Torture6 Resolutions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights • Prior agreement by the State concerned; • Occasional visits to places of detention in order to assess country situations in relation to their mandate; • 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 UN Human Rights Commission. Article 20 of theConvention of the United Nations (1984) • Can only visit States Parties to the Convention5; • Visits only in the case of “systematic torture”; • Authorisation by the State concerned; • Confidential procedure. Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) (2002) • Visits to States Parties to the Protocol; • Will be established for the purpose of conducting preventive visits; • Acceptance of visits without prior consent upon ratification or accession to OPCAT; • Preventive periodic visits; possibility of one follow-up visit; • Unlimited access to any place where a person is deprived of his/her liberty; • Confidential reports; possibility for the State to authorise publication or for the committee to publish in case of a failure to co-operate; • Annual report to CAT; • Direct contacts with national preventive mechanisms.