consent and acquiescence. The Subcommittee has unrestricted access to all places of detention, their installations and facilities, and to all relevant information relating to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons deprived of their liberty. The Subcommittee conducts private interviews without witnesses. Similar powers are to be granted to the national preventive mechanisms. After a visit, the Subcommittee issues a confidential report with a series of recommendations to the relevant State authorities, with a view to improving the treatment of detainees, including their conditions of detention. The report on a visit is part of the dialogue between the Subcommittee and the authorities of the State party concerned, aimed at preventing torture. The Subcommittee will publish the report whenever it is requested to do so by the State party concerned. Furthermore, the Subcommittee’s mandate includes advising and assisting States in the establishment of national preventive mechanisms. The Subcommittee also provides these mechanisms with advice on and assistance in reinforcing their independence and capacities and strengthening domestic safeguards against ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. For more information on the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, see the OHCHR website. I. Inter-State communications Although this procedure has never been used, five human rights treaties12 allow their State parties to complain to the relevant treaty body about alleged violations of the treaty by another State party. The Convention against Torture (art. 21), the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (art. 32) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (art. 76) set out such a procedure. However, domestic remedies need to be exhausted first and the procedure applies only to State parties that have made a declaration accepting the competence of the relevant committee in this regard. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (arts. 11–13) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (arts. 41–43) set out a more elaborate procedure for the resolution of such disputes between State parties through the establishment of an ad hoc conciliation commission. This procedure also requires domestic remedies to be exhausted first. It normally applies to all State parties to Once the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure enter into force, their respective committees will also be able to entertain Stateto-State complaints regarding State parties that have formally accepted this competence under article 10 and article 12, respectively. 12 35