CHAPTER 1. MANDATE OF THE NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM BASED ON THE OPCAT 1.1. Requirements of the OPCAT In 2015, the Commissioner continued the relevant work as an institution, designated to function as a national preventive mechanism (NPM) provided by the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). First this it should be mentioned that the main objectives of the OPCAT1 is to establish a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where people are deprived of their liberty,2 in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The OPCAT underlines the importance of a constructive dialogue and specifies that not an approach based on reaction, but preventive approach should be applied to the relations. The innovativeness of the OPCAT also appears in envisaging no new rights or standards or restoration of the infringed rights but the prevention of the violation of the existing standard –the right to not be subjected to torture. The principle idea of the mentioned document is to establish, as an effective tool for the prevention of torture, a system of independent and regular visits to be carried out with the purpose of monitoring the detention conditions and treatment of persons kept in places of detention. In accordance with the OPCAT, international and national bodies with a torture prevention mandate – the Subcommittee and NPMs – are set up. The Subcommittee of the UN against Torture established at the international level, is a new generation treaty body of the UN. Pursuant to Article 17 of the OPCAT, each State Party shall maintain, designate or establish, at the latest one year after its entry into force or of its ratification or accession, one or several independent national preventive mechanisms for the prevention of torture at the domestic level. The NPM’s mandate consists of at the very least the following: 1 Which was adopted with the UN General Assembly Resolution No. 57/199 dated 18 December, 2002, and entered into force after 20 States ratified it on 22 June 2006. 2 Pursuant to para. 2 of Article 4 of the OPCAT, for the purpose of the present Protocol, deprivation of liberty means any form of detention or imprisonment or the placement of a person in a public or private custodiial setting which that person is not pemitted to leave at will by order of any judicial, administrative or other authority. 7