15. Furthermore, CPT representatives held high-level talks in Stockholm (Sweden) on 18 October. The main objective of the talks was to discuss the implementation of the CPT’s long-standing recommendations aiming at significantly reducing both the scope and duration of restrictions on association and contacts with the outside world imposed on remand prisoners. The talks were also an opportunity to learn about other developments since the CPT’s last visit to Sweden (2015), including as regards the regime and activities for remand prisoners and prisoners held in conditions of high security, the role of prison health-care staff in preventing ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty, and prisoners’ visiting entitlement and access to a telephone. Discussions were also held on matters related to immigration detention and legal safeguards against ill-treatment of persons in police custody. The talks took place in an open and positive atmosphere, in the spirit of the principle of co-operation. 16. Finally, on 1 December, CPT representatives held talks with Boris Karnaukhov, Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, and looked into the investigation of complaints about police ill-treatment in a number of specific cases referred to in the report on the CPT’s February 2016 ad hoc visit to the North Caucasian region. Plenary meetings and activities of subgroups 17. The CPT held three one-week plenary meetings (in March, June/July and November), in the course of which a total of 20 visit reports were adopted. 18. During the March meeting, the CPT held two exchanges of views, one with Nils Muižnieks, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, and the second with Benoît Van Keirsbilck, Director of the NGO Defence for Children International (DCI). Three topics were discussed during the exchange with the Commissioner for Human Rights: the migration crisis; unresolved conflict zones; and the draft Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning the protection of human rights and dignity of persons with mental disorders with regard to involuntary placement and involuntary treatment. The subject of the second exchange of views was the project “Children’s Rights Behind Bars”, co-ordinated by DCI with the assistance of a number of partners including the Council of Europe, and specifically the CPT. A third exchange of views was held during the July plenary meeting, this time with Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe. During this exchange, the migration crisis and unresolved conflict zones were once again the subject of discussion, with social care homes being touched upon briefly. 19. The two standing subgroups of the CPT, the Medical Group and the Jurisprudence Group, continued to meet on the Sunday before each plenary meeting. The Medical Group examines substantive issues of a medical nature related to the CPT’s mandate and organises training sessions on the specific tasks that medical members of visiting delegations are required to perform. The task of the Jurisprudence Group is to advise the CPT on innovations in the Committee’s standards as reflected in visit reports and to identify areas where there is room for development of those standards. General Report of the CPT, 2016 ► Page 10

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