12 Pursuant to Article 4(2) of the OPCAT, “deprivation of liberty means any form of detention or imprisonment or the placement of a person in a public or private custodial setting which that person is not permitted to leave at will by order of any judicial, administrative or other authority.” The OPCAT has established the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter the “Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture”). One of the main tasks of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture is to inspect places where persons are deprived of their liberty; on the other hand, it advises and assists States Parties, when necessary, in establishing and operating their independent national bodies conducting regular visits to places of detention.19From the aspect of the operation of the National Preventive Mechanisms and in addition to the general directives20 of the Subcommittee, the specific directives and recommendations21 made in its reports on the Subcommittee’s visits to the States Parties are also applicable. 1.2.2. Instruments of the Council of Europe Pursuant to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, signed in Rome on November 4, 1950, promulgated by Act XXXI of 1993 (hereinafter the “European Convention on Human Rights”), „no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Unlike the UN instruments, Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights does not use the expression “cruel.” Compliance with the obligations stipulated in the European Convention on Human Rights and its protocols, including the prohibition of torture, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment, provided for in Article 3, is monitored mainly by the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter the “ECHR”). Pursuant to the European Convention on Human Rights, the ECHR may receive applications from any person, nongovernmental organization or group of individuals claiming to be the victim of a violation of the rights set forth in the Convention within a period of six months after all domestic remedies have been exhausted.22 In addition, any High Contracting Party may refer to the Court any alleged breach of the provisions of the Convention by another High Contracting Party. 23 In the course of its proceedings, the European Court shall determine whether the authorities of the state concerned have violated any article of the European Convention on Human Rights. According to the ECHR’s case-law, torture means serious and deliberate cruelty that cannot be established in the absence of serious physical and/or mental injuries. Inhuman treatment or punishment causes, if not actual bodily injury, at least intense physical and mental suffering. Degrading treatment or punishment is such as to arouse in their victims’ feelings of fear, anguish, and inferiority, capable of humiliating and debasing them and possibly breaking their physical or moral resistance.24 From the aspects of the National Preventive Mechanism’s activities, particularly those, Article-3-related, judgements of the ECHR have relevance which deal with the conditions of detention and issues related to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty (hygienic conditions, abuse by fellow detainees or the guards, crowdedness, solitary confinement, detention of minors, detention under immigration laws, physical and mental health of the detainees etc.).25 See Article 11 of the OPCAT on national preventive mechanisms: CAT/OP/12/5; Analytical assessment tool for national preventive mechanisms: CAT/OP/1/Rev.1; Compilation of SPT Advices to NPMs. These documents may be found at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/OPCAT/Pages/Brief.aspx 21See UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), Report on the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to the Maldives, February 26, 2009, CAT/OP/MDV/1, Clause 72. c) 22 Articles 34 and 35 of the European Convention on Human Rights 23 Article 33 of the European Convention on Human Rights 24 Judgement of the European Court of Human Rights, Ireland v. the United Kingdom (January 18, 1978), Clause 167 25 Factsheets on ECHR’s case-law. See at http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=press/factsheets 19 20 Guidelines