27. There should be a policy that provides for an immediate debriefing with the representatives of the place of detention at the end of a visit. 28. The mechanism should consider developing a code of conduct for visiting teams, covering, among other things, addressing detainees and staff, observing cultural and any other relevant sensitivities, conducting individual or group interviews, including how and when to conduct such interviews, handling security and safety issues, ensuring confidentiality, managing internal debriefings in order to coordinate and cross-check data collected and prepare for the closing of the visit, ensuring that the visitors do not step outside or in any other way exceed the mandate of the mechanism during a visit, and participating in reporting and follow-up. 29. The national preventive mechanism should have clear guidelines for reporting individual cases of deliberate ill-treatment and requesting inquiries, as well as for maintaining the confidentiality of the detainee concerned and any other source of relevant information and protecting such persons against reprisals. C. Visit reports 30. Visit reports should focus on the most important issues, that is, the reporting of ill- treatment, gaps in policies, regulations and practices, and the appropriateness of conditions under which detainees are living, and should reflect any systematic lack of protection of the rights of detainees. Good practices should be noted and filed for systematic analysis. Cases of deliberate ill-treatment should be examined to identify gaps in the protection of persons deprived of their liberty. 31. Recommendations should be well founded and should reflect, among other things, relevant international norms and practices. In general, recommendations should have a preventive focus, addressing systematic gaps and practices (root causes), and be feasible in practice. They should be relevantly focused, precise and non-complex, so as to avoid confusion in the dialogue about their implementation. 32. The national preventive mechanism should, based on its experience, develop a strategy for the use of its report, which should include the submission of the report to relevant official bodies and the Government as a basis for and dialogue, and possibly its publication and dissemination, for the purpose of alerting the wider society. D. Follow-up to recommendations for change issued by the Subcommittee and by the national preventive mechanism 33. The national preventive mechanism should regularly verify the implementation of recommendations, primarily through follow-up visits to problematic institutions, but also based on relevant information from, among others, human rights bodies, governmental institutions and civil society. In order to facilitate effective follow-up, the mechanism should put in place a follow-up strategy that is clear and impact-oriented and develop the practices and tools necessary to implement the strategy. 34. The mechanism should maintain a constructive dialogue with, firstly, those to whom the recommendations are addressed, namely, governmental authorities and the directors/managers of the places of detention concerned, but also with their supervising authorities. The dialogue should involve both written and oral exchanges on the implementation of the recommendations. Those to whom the recommendations are addressed should, on request from the mechanism, develop a concrete policy or plan of action to commence reform where needed. In particular cases it may be appropriate to recommend that authorities immediately put an end to certain practices and initiate a criminal investigation. 35. Visit reports, including recommendations, should, in principle, be published. Exceptions may exist where the national preventive mechanism considers it inappropriate to do so or where there is a legal impediment. Annual reports must be published and should include, in addition to recommendations for change, the outcome of the dialogue with authorities, i.e., follow-up on recommendations mentioned in previous annual reports. The mechanism may also publish thematic reports. 36. The national preventive mechanism should maintain a dialogue with other relevant national and international actors, including civil society, consider all relevant information received from them and advocate for submission of relevant information to the mechanism. E. Prevention of reprisals 37. The national preventive mechanism should develop a strategy for preventing reprisals and threats by detention centre staff, as well as by fellow detainees, against persons interviewed during visits and ANNEXES I 49