Part II of torture and inhuman treatment. Therefore, in the 1970s, a discussion began on the importance of preventing and eliminating such practices279. The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter referred to as the Protocol or OPCAT), adopted on 18 December 2002, crowned the efforts to supplement the torture prevention system. This way the international community officially expressed its opposition to the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. According to the Protocol, one of the most effective ways to prevent torture is to establish a preventive system of regular visits to places of detention. The protocol provides for the establishment of the so-called international preventive mechanism as well as national preventive mechanisms. According to the OPCAT, each State Party shall allow visits, in accordance with the present Protocol, by those mechanisms, to any place under its jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence. The specific innovativeness of the OPCAT arises from the complementary nature of the preventive visits conducted, on the one hand, by the international body and, on the other hand, by one or more national preventive mechanisms that the signatory States are required to establish upon ratification of the Protocol. This two-pillar approach implements the idea of monitoring places of detention at the national level280. As the international preventive mechanism, the Subcommittee on Prevention (SPT) was established within the United Nations Committee against Torture which operates pursuant to the provisions of the Convention against Torture. The mandate of the SPT covers, in particular, the power to conduct visits on the territories of States Parties, make relevant recommendations, cooperate and provide advice and assistance to national preventive mechanisms (Article 11 OPCAT). Already at that time, several international organizations joined their forces to find further more pragmatic measures to prevent such infringements. Swiss philanthropist Jean Jacques Gautier, inspired by the results of visits to prisons, conducted by the International Committee of the Red Cross during world war II, sought to create a system of regular visits to all places of detention across the world. In 1977, he established the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), an independent NGO based in Geneva, which from its earliest days has been supporting his simple but innovative principle that visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty are the most effective method of preventing torture and ill-treatment. For many years, APT members have sought to create such a system within the UN structures. 280 Cf. Monitoring places of detention. Practical Guide, Geneva, April 2004, p. 7. 279 95