CPT: 15TH GENERAL REPORT 11 ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS The Warsaw Summit 27. At their Summit meeting in Warsaw on 16 and 17 May 2005, the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Council of Europe drew up an Action Plan laying down the principal tasks of the Organisation in the coming years. In that Plan they declared: “We shall continue to support the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) and the unique role it plays, through its visits to places of detention, in improving the conditions of detained persons.” The CPT is extremely grateful to the Heads of State and Government for this mark of their commitment towards the Committee’s activities. The Convention establishing the CPT 28. On 5 October 2004, the Principality of Monaco became the 46th member of the Council of Europe, and the Monegasque Government has undertaken to sign and ratify the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture within one year of joining the Organisation. Plans are already being made for the CPT’s first periodic visit to Monaco in 2006. 29. With Monaco’s ratification of the Convention, the CPT’s natural constituency will be almost fully represented. However, as is clear from the map in Appendix 3 showing the Committee’s field of operations, there remains one notable exception, namely Belarus. Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe. However, that does not mean it cannot become a Party to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture. The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers is empowered – and on its own initiative – to invite any non-member State to accede to the Convention. When the time is ripe from a political standpoint, such an invitation to Belarus could be both a sign of the Organisation’s wish to forge closer links with that country and a reminder of the obligations which membership of the Council of Europe entails. 30. Reference was made in the previous General Report to consultations underway with a view to ensuring the application of the Convention throughout the territory of Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo (which is currently under interim international administration). This involves ensuring that the CPT will enjoy in Kosovo – as in every other part of its field of operations – access to all places of deprivation of liberty, under the conditions laid down in the Convention. Access for the CPT to places where persons are detained by an authority of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has been guaranteed by an Agreement between UNMIK and the Council of Europe signed on 23 August 2004 (cf. Appendix 8 to the CPT’s 14th General Report – CPT/Inf (2004) 28). However, reaching similar arrangements in respect of detention facilities operated by the “international security presence in Kosovo” (KFOR) – which also has the power to detain civilians in Kosovo – is proving to be a protracted process. On 28 February 2005, the CPT’s President had an exchange of views with the Political Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in order to explain the Committee’s modus operandi and remove possible misunderstandings. Since then, there would appear to have been little progress. The CPT can only hope that the consultations, which it understands are still taking place, will eventually bear fruit.