Section three The NPM in 2014–15 International collaboration Several members of the NPM met with the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Rashida Manjoo, during her official visit to the UK in April 2013. A report of the visit, published in June 2014, raised the Special Rapporteur’s concerns about the increase in women in prison, and the overrepresentation of black and minority ethnic women in prisons and immigration detention, as well as the fact that female prisoners are more likely to repeatedly self‑harm. She expressed regret at being denied entry to Yarl’s Wood IRC, despite repeated requests from the start of her visit. Among her recommendations, she called for the full implementation of recommendations from the 2007 Corston report on women with particular vulnerabilities in the criminal justice system, as well as an independent examination of allegations of abuse against women detainees in Yarl’s Wood and to ensure all complaints are thoroughly investigated and alleged perpetrators held accountable.112 Members of the UK NPM received visits from several delegations interested in their experience of independent detention monitoring. The IMBs hosted delegations from Kosovo and Russia, and a delegation from Georgia met the IMBs, CQC and HMI Prisons. HMI Prisons received visits from Australia, Georgia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Libya, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Turkmenistan. HMI Prisons’ staff provided training to assist or develop local inspection and monitoring organisations in Bahrain, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Japan, Lebanon and Morocco, funding all its international work separately from its core domestic inspection business. CQC shared experiences from the UK NPM in Ukraine, at a regional (Western Balkans) conference in Kosovo and in Shanghai (although China is not a signatory to OPCAT, its new mental health legislation does provide for monitoring visits to hospitals). CQC also hosted a visit from the clinician responsible for legal reform of mental health law in Brunei Darussalam. The UK NPM was invited to international meetings focusing on detention and monitoring. CCE spoke about detention monitoring at the World Congress on Juvenile Justice ( January 2015) and on children in conflict with the law deprived of their liberty at an expert symposium organised by the Association for the Prevention of Torture ( July 2014).113 HMI Prisons and HMIPS attended the 25th anniversary conference of the CPT at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France in March 2015. Members of the NPM provided detailed input into a project led by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights and the Bristol University Human Rights Implementation Centre on ‘Strengthening the effective implementation and follow-up of NPM recommendations’.114 The NPM coordinator and HMIC attended a meeting of NPMs in April 2014 to prepare input for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) supplementary human rights dimension meeting, where the issue of torture prevention had been put 112 United Nations General Assembly (2015), Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, A/HRC/29/27/Add.2, 19 May 2015. 113 See: http://www.apt.ch/en/2014-children-s-vulnerabilities-in-detention/ for more information (accessed 14/10/15). 114 Ludwig Boltzmann Institute and University of Bristol (2015), Enhancing impact of NPMs: Strengthening the follow-up on NPM recommendations in the EU. At: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/media-library/sites/law/hric/2015-documents/NPM%20 Study_final.pdf (accessed 14/10/15). 63