Contacts with other bodies 20. The CPT continued to promote contact with other bodies within the Council of Europe. For instance, on 15 December, the CPT’s President attended an informal meeting of the Presidents of the monitoring and advisory bodies, organised by the Secretary General, with the aim of ensuring better co-ordination of the activities of the different monitoring mechanisms operating within the Council of Europe. Further, co-operation was pursued with the Parliamentary Assembly in the form of two hearings; one in Strasbourg on 21 June on securing access of detainees to a lawyer, the other in Paris on 13 December on “25 years of the CPT, achievements and improvements”. Representatives of the CPT took part in a number of other Council of Europe activities, in particular, a seminar organised by the European Court of Human Rights on international and national courts confronting large-scale violations of human rights in January; the 4th meeting of the Drafting Committee on prison overcrowding in April in Strasbourg; the 1st meeting of the Committee of experts on administrative detention of migrants (CJ-DAM) and the 12th meeting of the Council for Penological Co-operation (PC-CP), both in Strasbourg in May, and the 21st Conference of Directors of Prisons and Probation Services in June in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Further, as in previous years, regular contacts were maintained with the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights and staff of his Office on matters of common interest, notably, as previously mentioned, in the form of an exchange of views during the CPT’s March plenary meeting. 21. Co-operation with bodies outside the Council of Europe was also pursued. During a number of periodic and/or ad hoc visits, CPT delegations met representatives of the field missions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Furthermore, regular contact with the UNHCR office in Strasbourg was maintained. The CPT continued to have regular consultations and contacts with the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) as well as with the National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) set up under the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT). A joint statement with the SPT was issued on the occasion of the “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture” in June. The President attended the 1st Annual Meeting of NPMs from the OSCE region in Vienna in October and a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the SPT in Geneva in November. In addition, a representative of the CPT attended the SEE NPM Network meeting on “Homes for the elderly/care institutions and dementia – standards in health care and medication-based restrictions to freedom” in Salzburg in April. Furthermore, representatives of NPMs were met by CPT delegations during periodic and/or ad hoc visits. The United Nations firmly reiterated its commitment to co-operation with the CPT in the Resolution on Cooperation between the United Nations and the Council of Europe adopted by the General Assembly in November (A/RES/71/17). This resolution Activities during the period 1 January to 31 December 2016 ► Page 11