THE NATIONAL AGENCY IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT + + + + Access to all information referring to the treatment of these persons as well as their conditions of detention; + Access to all places of detention, their installations and facilities; The opportunity to hold private interviews with persons deprived of their liberty without witnesses, either personally or, where deemed necessary, through an interpreter, as well as with any other persons whom the National Agency believes may supply relevant information; The liberty to choose the places it wishes to visit and whom its wishes to interview; To maintain contact with the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, to send it information and to meet with it. Under Article 21 para. 1 of the OPCAT, no person who has communicated any information to the National Agency may be prejudiced in any way or subject to any sanctions. The members and staff of the National Agency are also obliged to maintain secrecy beyond their term of office. 2 – THE NATIONAL AGENCY IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT The National Agency is Germany’s national preventive mechanism pursuant to Article 3 of the OPCAT. Each State Party to the OPCAT is required to establish such a mechanism, which may comprise one or several facilities. The National Agency engages in a regular exchange with numerous other preventive mechanisms. recommendations in respect of protecting people deprived of their liberty against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. To this end it essentially has the same powers as the national preventive mechanisms. Second, it may also conduct visits to support the States Parties in setting up their national preventive mechanisms and to offer them training and technical assistance. 2.1 – WORLDWIDE TORTURE PREVENTION 2.2 – THE NATIONAL AGENCY’S INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES As at the end of 2015, the OPCAT had 98 signatory states and had been ratified by 80 states. Of these 80 States Parties, 63 have already designated a national preventive mechanism based on one of three models: Under one model, the remits of existing ombuds institutions were extended to include the prevention of torture (e.g. in Sweden, Austria and Spain); secondly, various existing monitoring mechanisms were combined to create a national preventive mechanism (e.g. in the United Kingdom); a third group of states, including France, Switzerland and Germany, established new national preventive mechanisms. A preventive mechanism was also set up at the United Nations, namely the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). It comprises 25 members who are nominated and elected by the States Parties. Since 2012 the SPT has shared out its regional competences amongst its members. The SPT may visit the States Parties for two reasons: First, like the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), it can visit places of detention in the States Parties with the aim of making Representatives of the National Agency were again involved in various international activities in the period under review. For instance, the National Agency was represented at an event to mark the 25th anniversary of the CPT. Also, members of the Secretariat took part in conferences in Vienna on issues connected with the implementation of recommendations made (see 4.1 below), in Istanbul on setting up Turkey’s national preventive mechanism and in Bristol on the “Bangkok Rules” (the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders). Further, the exchange between the national preventive mechanisms of Austria, Switzerland and of Germany which was launched in 2014 continued at the invitation of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. The Ombudsman Board invited representatives of the Swiss National Commission on the Prevention of Torture and the National Agency to Vienna for a meeting from 28 to 30 October 2015. The meeting focused on the conduct of visits to care homes and nursing homes for the elderly in which measures de- 13