Publication highlights Introduction 25. Twenty-two CPT visit reports were published in 2018. As of 31 December 2017, 392 of the 428 reports drawn up have been published. A state-by-state table showing the current situation as regards publication of CPT visit reports is set out in Appendix 6. 26. The CPT welcomes the fact that the authorities of Azerbaijan decided to publish the hitherto seven unpublished reports concerning their country, together with the responses of the Azerbaijani Government. This means that all of the CPT’s reports on its visits to Azerbaijan are now in the public domain. In 2013, the Russian Federation had agreed to the publication of the visit reports on the CPT’s 2011 ad hoc visit to the North Caucasian region, as well as on the 2012 periodic visit to the Russian Federation. However, 21 of the remaining 22 reports have not yet been published. On recent occasions, the Committee of Ministers has encouraged the Russian authorities to authorise the publication of all the CPT’s visit reports.2 The CPT trusts that the Russian authorities will take steps in this direction. This would greatly facilitate co-operation. With the exception of the Russian Federation, most states publish the CPT reports soon after they receive them, or after they have provided their response. Turkey is the only state which still has several unpublished reports (3 unpublished reports, covering visits in 2016, 2017 and 2018). The CPT very much hopes that Turkey will shortly authorise the publication of these CPT reports as well as its responses, as also mentioned in Resolution 2156 (2017) of the Parliamentary Assembly on “The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey”. 27. As the CPT has repeatedly emphasised, authorising publication of documents related to visits can be seen as an important means of co-operating with the Committee. During 2018, both Denmark and Norway informed the CPT of their decision to authorise in advance the publication of all future CPT visit reports and related government responses concerning their country, bringing the total number of states having endorsed the “automatic publication procedure” to ten (Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Republic of Moldova, Monaco, Norway, Sweden and Ukraine). The CPT is pleased to note that both the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe have recently encouraged states which have not 2. See, in particular, the Committee of Ministers’ reply to the Recommendation 2099 (2017) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted on 14 November 2018 at the 1329th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (CM/AS(2018)Rec2099-final). ► Page 17