Moreover, in the course of the year the Contrôleur général des lieux de privation de liberté was once again involved in numerous instances of Parliamentary work: the Act of 15th August 2014 concerning the adaptation of sentences to offenders’ individual requirements and consolidation of the effectiveness of penal sanctions, the Bill concerning the rights of foreigners in France, the Budget Bill for 2015 and participation in the Parliamentary group on prisons in the National Assembly. 1.3 Other Non-Public Legal Entities On taking up her functions, the Contrôleure générale des lieux de privation de liberté approached the various different union organisations and major associations working in the field of places of deprivation of liberty in order to engage in exchanges with them concerning the principal issues encountered. These meetings, which were always fruitful, continued throughout the year with regard to various different aspects specific to each of the partners. 1.4 International Relations The Act of 2007 places an obligation upon the Contrôle Général to cooperate with international institutions with a similar role to its own. The Optional Protocol of the United Nations added to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (article 11), places an obligation upon the UN’s competent Subcommittee (the SPT 37) to provide advice for the mechanisms implemented in each signatory country. The Contrôle Général is therefore part of an international network, since national preventive mechanisms currently exist in 60 States 38. Multilateral Relations continued and were amplified in 2014. Unlike previous years, in which the Council of Europe was practically its sole promoter, new institutions are now giving concrete expression to their interest in the dissemination of the Optional Protocol and the Contrôle Général is taking part in these initiatives. This is the case of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). On taking up her duties the Contrôleure Générale wanted to go to Strasbourg in order to meet with the bodies of the Council of Europe as a whole and express the Contrôle Général’s renewed interest in this international organisation’s work, which may lead to the creation of new instruments concerning various different aspects of captivity. The Contrôle Général also took part in multilateral meetings organised by the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), intended to provide the authorities and non-governmental organisations with information concerning the value and feasibility of national preventive mechanisms. In particular, it participated in meetings of this nature organised in Algiers and Tunis. It notably took part in the first Jean Jacques Gautier Symposium, intended for national preventive mechanisms and devoted to ways of addressing the problems affecting children in situations of vulnerability in detention. It was also involved in a meeting of high-level experts devoted to the protection of persons deprived of liberty against reprisals. As in 2013, no European Union initiatives were undertaken in 2014; though, admittedly, the election of the new Parliament in June and the appointment of the new Commission were hardly conducive to new actions. 37 38 "Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture". Source: OPCAT Database, Association for the Prevention of Torture. 43