CPT: 16TH GENERAL REPORT 7 ACTIVITIES DURING THE PERIOD 1 AUGUST 2005 TO 31 JULY 2006 Visits 1. The CPT organised eighteen visits totalling 168 days during the twelve-month period covered by this General Report. Of those visits, ten (totalling 111 days) formed part of the CPT’s annual programme of periodic visits and eight (57 days) were ad hoc visits which the Committee considered were required by the circumstances. This represents a small increase in visit days as compared to the previous year. However, development of the annual visit programme beyond the 170-day level continues to be hampered by staffrelated factors. The CPT is at present required to carry out its mandate in 47 States. To cope effectively with the workload involved, the Committee must at the earliest opportunity be placed in a position to increase the volume of visit days to 200 per year. This would make it possible to organise a periodic visit to each Party to the ECPT on average every four years and at the same time leave sufficient scope for the different types of ad hoc visits required in the circumstances. 2. Periodic visits were organised to Armenia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Monaco, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” and Ukraine. The visit to Monaco was the first by the CPT to that State Party. The programme of a periodic visit will typically cover various types of establishments (police stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for minors) located in different parts of the country concerned. Particular attention was given during certain visits (for example, to Germany, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine) to the treatment of foreign nationals detained under immigration legislation. Another area of focus for a number of visits (such as those to Armenia, the Czech Republic, Romania and Ukraine) concerned the treatment of persons sentenced to life-imprisonment. 3. The eight ad hoc visits carried out by the CPT during the period covered by this General Report concerned Albania, Italy, Moldova (including the Transnistrian region), the Russian Federation (North Caucasian region), Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 4. The main purpose of the ad hoc visit to Albania in March 2006 was to examine the steps taken by the national authorities to implement recommendations made by the CPT after the May/June 2005 periodic visit. Discussions were held on this subject with the Ministers of Health, the Interior and Justice, as well as with the Prime Minister. Particular attention was paid to the conditions of detention in pretrial detention facilities under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, the delegation explored whether the 1996 Mental Health Act, which includes a number of guarantees intended to safeguard the fundamental rights of psychiatric patients, was being effectively implemented. 5. During the June 2006 ad hoc visit to Italy the CPT focused on the treatment of immigration detainees, reviewing steps taken by the authorities in the light of the recommendations on this subject contained in the report on the Committee’s November/December 2004 periodic visit. An examination of cases of deportations of foreign nationals from Crotone and Lampedusa airports in 2005 and the first half of 2006 was also carried out. At the end of the visit, the CPT’s delegation had a fruitful discussion with the Minister of the Interior and other senior officials responsible for immigration matters. 6. The ad hoc visit to Moldova in November 2005 was aimed at examining on the spot the measures taken by the Moldovan authorities to implement recommendations made by the Committee after its periodic visit in September 2004. Particular attention was given to the situation of persons detained by the police and to the treatment of life-sentenced prisoners and of prisoners suffering from multi-resistant tuberculosis.