17 IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS 61. The European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was opened for signature on 26 November 1987. Some four years later it has been ratified by all the member States of the Council of Europe save Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland, which only joined the Council of Europe very recently. This bears witness to the commitment of the member States to the eradication of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and to their belief in the value of the body set up under the Convention, namely the CPT. The fact that the CPT has benefitted from the full co-operation of the national authorities at ministerial level in every State visited to date, is another illustration of the support enjoyed by the Committee. 62. Following the establishment of the procedural and organisational framework for the proper conduct of visits, the CPT can be considered as fully operational. The core of the Committee's activities now consists of the actual carrying out of visits and associated tasks. It should be emphasised that the CPT's visits form part of a continuing process. The Committee intends to organise periodic visits to each Party to the Convention at regular intervals, aside from any ad hoc visits that might prove necessary. Further, an ongoing dialogue shall take place between visits to a given country, on the basis of the Committee's visit report and the interim and follow-up reports from the authorities in response. Sustaining such a dialogue will be onerous and time-consuming for the CPT and national authorities alike, and its fruits will often be neither immediate nor spectacular. However, the Committee is convinced that it is the only valid method of bringing about significant and durable improvements in the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. 63. Finally, it is noteworthy that in some countries visited by the CPT, police and prison officers have expressed surprise that an "anti-torture" Committee should consider it necessary to examine the way in which they treat persons in their custody. This is perhaps an unfortunate result of the CPT's rather long title, attention inevitably focussing on the term "torture" to the detriment of that of "inhuman or degrading treatment". Of course, the subject of torture is central to the CPT's mandate. However, as is clear from the issues referred to in Part III of this report, the concerns of the Committee are not restricted to preventing that particularly atrocious form of human rights violation: they extend to any form of ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. Hopefully, as knowledge of the CPT's activities spreads, this will become apparent to all.