CPT: 14TH GENERAL REPORT Ensuring adequate living conditions is a sine qua non for effectively combating tuberculosis; consequently, supporting the above-mentioned project will be an excellent means of promoting the implementation of recommendations already made by the CPT aimed at improving the situation of prisoners suffering from tuberculosis in the Transnistrian region. Another idea currently under consideration is to organise a pilot project in three countries amongst those experiencing problems with the implementation of CPT recommendations. The objective would be to conduct a study in each of those countries in order to assess their needs in this regard and identify concrete proposals for outside assistance. The outcome of the studies would then be presented to potential donors. Mention should also be made of meetings which the CPT’s President had in Brussels in January 2004 with senior officials of European Union institutions. One of the principal objectives was to ensure that the fruit of the CPT’s work is exploited in the context of the EU programme of project funding in third countries. 14. More generally, the CPT is keen to explore possibilities for synergy with other bodies, both within and outside the Council of Europe. In this context, useful contacts have been established during the last year with Council of Europe committees working on issues related to the CPT’s mandate, such as expulsion procedures, pre-trial detention and the protection of persons with mental disorder. As regards this lastmentioned subject, the CPT is also grateful to the Committee of Ministers for having invited it to make comments on the draft recommendation approved by the Steering Committee on Bioethics. Further, on 24 June 2004, the President of the CPT had a fruitful exchange of views with members of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly. The CPT also stays in regular contact with a host of other organisations, in order to spread knowledge about the Committee’s work and ensure a good coordination of activities. For example, the CPT took an active part in the OSCE’s Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on the prevention of torture, held in November 2003. The Final Report on this meeting includes recommendations that the ODIHR and OSCE field operations should continue to strengthen cooperation with CPT visiting delegations and that the OSCE should actively assist participating States in the implementation of recommendations made by the Committee. 11 Publications and media relations 15. The already well-established trend towards publication of CPT material was confirmed during the period covered by this General Report. At the request of the governments concerned, reports on 16 visits were published by the Committee during the last twelve months together with a similar number of government responses. These publications include, for the first time, a report on a visit to Armenia (in October 2002). Reference should also be made to the decision of the Romanian authorities to publish simultaneously, in April 2004, the reports concerning their country not yet in the public domain (on visits in 2001, 2002 and 2003). More than ever, publication is the norm, nonpublication the exception. At the time of writing, 134 of the 169 CPT visit reports so far drawn up have been placed in the public domain. A State-by State table showing the current situation is set out in Appendix 4. 16. The CPT has compiled an “information pack”, containing various materials describing in detail the Committee’s modus operandi and the standards it has developed. Further translations of the pack have been produced during the last twelve months, and it is currently available in the following languages: Albanian, Croatian, English, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian. The pack is posted in all these languages on the CPT’s website, and printed copies can be obtained from the Committee’s Secretariat. A CD-ROM containing the whole of the website is also produced once per year (latest edition: July 2004). 17. The CPT’s work can on occasion generate considerable interest among the media. In the early years of the Committee’s activities, the rule of confidentiality laid down in the Convention often placed obstacles in the way of responding in a meaningful way to requests for information from journalists. Those obstacles have to a considerable extent been removed, now that so many of the CPT’s reports and government responses have been placed in the public domain. The CPT and its Secretariat strive to offer as much assistance to the media as possible having regard to the principles governing its work. In this spirit, a videokit showing the full range of the Committee’s activities is currently in preparation.