This mission, as I stated at the time of my hearings before the parliamentary assemblies, is an honour to democracy, to our democracy. It makes it possible to place values at the heart of our Republic, which should be shared by the public at large. The Act of 26th May 2014 very considerably improved the conditions of our action, without changing the overall management thereof, by making it possible to give greater scope to our duties. This Parliamentary initiative, originally put forward by Mrs Catherine Tasca, Member of the French Senate, enables progress in three major areas of the CGLPL’s activity: the creation of an offence of obstruction of the Contrôleur Général’s action places an essential lever at our disposal; access to medical information and more generally reduction of secrecy that might be raised against the exercise of the Contrôleur Général’s duties; and finally, extension of the Contrôleur Général’s field of competence to the control of deportation measures. Here I would like to mention a few working orientations which have provided inspiration in these first months after taking up my duties. Certainly, it is easier to set out priorities than to implement them. Moreover, it may appear hazardous to immediately publish intentions. I am taking this risk because I believe it to be an essential element of the preventive mission assigned to the Contrôleur Général and that those who may be led to refer cases to the authority or face up to an inspection will thus be able to determine the precise aims thereof. My intention here is not to set out a detailed programme for the next six years, but rather to provide a number of orientations arising from interviews which I have held with a certain number of actors, union organisations, associations, members of Parliament and certain representatives of the executive. The first of these orientations is the need to measure up to the very high level of expectations placed upon the Contrôle Général, whose work is henceforth well-known, and whose quality of findings and recommendations, as well as independence and intransigence should be maintained. Particular tribute must be paid to Jean Marie Delarue, who succeeded in establishing these two major orientations as the Contrôle Général’s trademark. The CGLPL is still too often considered to be the prisons inspectorate. Admittedly, we need to devote our full attention to examining deprivation of liberty arising from prison sentences, and it should be emphasised that the inspection of all prisons, at least once in the course of the previous Contrôleur Général’s term of office, constitutes a fundamental step forward. We need to build upon this progress, and continue our controls while paying particular attention to certain points, such as respect for the dignity of persons in all of its forms as well as expression on the part of prisoners. The date of the end of the moratorium on individual cell placement provided a first opportunity to assess Parliament’s expectations with regard to the Contrôle Général: adopting a position in line with the Opinion of 24th March 2014 3 concerning the use of individual cells in prisons, I asserted the impossibility of renewed retreat in the face of this issue, which is essential for the dignity of prisoners as well as fundamental for the prevention of recidivism. I am also aware of the important work undertaken in the field of respect for the rights of persons suffering from mental disorders. In 2011 and 2013, the legislature made a step forward by introducing control on the part of the ordinary courts, a guarantee of such respect. However, our task is to verify that the rights of these persons, rendered particularly vulnerable by their state of health, are not infringed on a daily basis. As already stated, I want to make this field a priority orientation of my term of office. This country has about 360 institutions accommodating persons hospitalised without their consent. We have inspected about a third of them. It is up to us to visit the whole of these institutions by 2020, whatever their legal status, whenever consent on the part of the persons accommodated in them is absent. Important 3 Published in the Journal Officiel of 23rd April 2014. 13