8 Monitoring on behalf of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 14. In the course of 1999, the ICTY requested that the CPT accept the task of monitoring, in certain States, the treatment of persons serving sentences imposed by the Tribunal. Following consultation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, an exchange of letters between the Tribunal and the CPT regulating this question was finalised in November 2000; those letters are reproduced in Appendix 5 of the Committee’s 11th General Report (CPT/Inf (2001) 16). In brief, it was understood that, following its written approval, the CPT could be designated to monitor the conditions of detention and treatment of persons convicted by the ICTY, in a State which had agreed to accept the transfer of the prisoners concerned for the purpose of the enforcement of their sentences. 15. The exchange of letters was activated in the context of an Enforcement Agreement concluded between the United Kingdom and the ICTY in 2004. The first transfer of a prisoner under that Agreement occurred on 20 December 2004, and the treatment and conditions of detention of the person concerned were monitored by the CPT during the Committee’s ad hoc visit to the United Kingdom in July 2005. Meetings and working methods 16. The CPT held three one-week plenary sessions during the twelve months covered by this General Report – in November 2004, and March and July 2005. A total of seventeen visit reports were adopted by the Committee at these three meetings, ten of them according to the expedited procedure (under which draft visit reports circulated at least two weeks before a plenary session are adopted without debate, save for paragraphs in respect of which a discussion has been specifically requested in advance). Besides the adoption of visit reports, plenary sessions are the occasion to review the ongoing dialogue with Parties to the Convention, hold thematic discussions on issues related to the CPT’s mandate and prepare future visits. Much of this activity takes place in the context of subgroups of the Committee – delegations responsible for visits, the medical group, the working group on the Committee’s “jurisprudence”, etc. CPT: 15TH GENERAL REPORT 17. The CPT seeks to enrich its discussions at plenary sessions by inviting outside speakers. Recent guests have included Sir Nigel RODLEY (member of the UN Human Rights Committee and former UN Special Rapporteur on the question of torture) and Judges Josep CASADEVALL and Françoise TULKENS of the European Court of Human Rights. The CPT plans to hold an exchange of views later this year with the present UN Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, Mr Manfred NOWAK. The Committee also had a fruitful exchange of views with the Secretary General, Mr Terry DAVIS, during its November 2004 meeting, the first CPT plenary after he took office. 18. More generally, the CPT remains keen to promote synergy with other bodies on issues related to its mandate, both within and outside the Council of Europe. The CPT was very pleased to be able to contribute to the work of Council of Europe committees concerning the revision of the European Prison Rules and the preparation of guidelines on the forced return of foreign nationals. Some specific comments on these matters will be made later in this report. The Committee also welcomes the invitation it received to make a presentation at the Seminar on the protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism, organised by the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) and held in Strasbourg in June 2005. The CPT follows closely the work of the Parliamentary Assembly, and there are regular contacts between the Committee’s Secretariat and the staff of the Human Rights Commissioner, Mr Alvaro GILROBLES. The increasing number of references to CPT reports in judgements of the European Court of Human Rights should also be highlighted; of course, this latter development has been made possible by States agreeing to lift the veil of confidentiality and place CPT material in the public domain.