A. General information about the work of the National Agency I. History and legal foundation The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is already set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948.1 The cornerstone in the active “fight against torture” was however laid by the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 10 December 19842 (UN Anti-Torture Convention – CAT). The Convention obliges the States to prevent any act of torture and to make torture offences punishable. The Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 18 December 2002 (OP-CAT)3 adds to the UN Anti-Torture Convention and pursues a preventive method. It is orientated in line with the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which more than 20 years ago established a system of preventive visits in the States of the Council of Europe.4 The Optional Protocol also provides to strengthen protection against torture and mistreatment by means of this system of visits. To this end, Article 3 OP-CAT entails an obligation to set up national preventive mechanisms which are to supplement the work of the also newly-created Subcommittee on the prevention of torture (SPT)5. Germany signed the Optional Protocol on 20 September 2006 and ratified it on 4 December 2008. The Optional Protocol came into force for the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 January 2009 in terms of international law. The Federal Agency for the Prevention of Torture was established by means of an Administrative Order of the Federal Ministry of Justice of 20 November 2008, and started operations on 1 May 2009. The Commission of the Länder started its operations on the basis of a State Treaty, which entered into force on 1 September 2010 after being ratified by the Länder.6 Since the Commission of the Länder took up its activities, the two facilities have formed, together as the National Agency, the German preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the UN Anti-Torture Convention. Klaus Lange-Lehngut (Leitender Regierungsdirektor, ret.) was appointed honorary Director of the Federal Agency for a period of office of four years by the Federal Ministry of Justice in agreement with the Federal Ministries of the Interior and of Defence on 4 December 2008. The four honorary members of the Commission of the Länder were appointed via a resolution that was passed at the 81st Conference of Ministers of Justice held in Hamburg on 23 1 Resolution of the UN General Assembly 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948; German Text reprinted in Federal Foreign Office (publisher), Menschenrechte in der Welt. Konventionen, Erklärungen, Perspektiven, 1988 2 Resolution of the UN General Assembly 39/46 of 10 December 1984; German Text reprinted in the Federal Law Gazette 1990 Part II, p. 246 3 Resolution of the UN General Assembly A/RES/57/199 of 18 December 2002; German Text reprinted in the Federal Law Gazette 2008 Part II, p. 854 4 ETS No. 126 of 26 November 1987; German Text reprinted in the Federal Law Gazette 1993, pp. 1115 and 1118 5 The German translation of the UN Resolution differs by referring to the SPT as “Unterausschuss für Prävention” (Subcommittee for Prevention) 6 State Treaty on the establishment of a national mechanism of all Länder in accordance with Article 3 of the Optional Protocol of 18 December 2002 to the Convention of 25 June 2009 against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 10