CAT/OP/ARM/2 9. During the course of the visit, joint site visits to the three places of detention mentioned in paragraph 5 above were conducted (see annex II). The places of deprivation of liberty were chosen by the national preventive mechanism. The visits permitted the Subcommittee to analyse the methodology of the visiting teams of the two components of the mechanism, the mechanism itself and the Expert Council. During the joint visits, the members of the Subcommittee acted as observers, while the members of the mechanism and the Expert Council led the visits. 10. The present report will be sent to the national preventive mechanism, on a confidential basis. The mechanism will then decide whether to make it public. 11. The Subcommittee will send a separate, confidential, report to the Armenian authorities, in which it will make recommendations to the State party. II. National preventive mechanism 12. Armenia acceded to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment on 13 September 1993 and to its Optional Protocol on 14 September 2006. On 8 April 2008, Parliament designated the Human Rights Defender’s Office as the national preventive mechanism, through an amendment to the 2003 Law on the Human Rights Defender. Article 6.1 of the Law, introduced in 2008, states that the Human Rights Defender is recognized as an independent national preventive mechanism under the Optional Protocol. That and subsequent amendments provide no further detail on the functioning of the mechanism. 13. The tasks and powers of the national preventive mechanism therefore derive from the Optional Protocol, in particular articles 19 and 20, and have been further elaborated in the relevant internal regulation. 14. From 2009 to 2011, the national preventive mechanism’s functions were carried out by a team of three staff members of the Human Rights Defender’s Office and four representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) selected by the Human Rights Defender. Visits to places of detention were carried out on the condition that delegations comprised at least one staff member of the Office and that the Human Rights Defender was informed of every visit beforehand. Funding came from a three-year project implemented under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights. 15. In 2011, the Human Rights Defender established the Department for the Prevention of Torture and Violence within the Human Rights Defender’s Office, which was charged with the fulfilment of the Defender’s national preventive mechanism mandate. The Department consists of four professionals (the head of the department, a psychologist, a lawyer and a doctor), who take part in the visits of the mechanism. As at August 2013, the position of psychologist was vacant. The mechanism indicated to the Subcommittee that the filling of vacant posts would depend on the budget allocations for 2014. 16. The involvement of NGOs in the national preventive mechanism was formalized in 2010 with the establishment of the Expert Council on the Prevention of Torture and Violence by an order of the Human Rights Defender (order No. 002-L). Pursuant to article 26 of the Law on the Human Rights Defender, the Defender may establish an expert council composed of individuals with a background in human rights and fundamental freedoms, who shall be involved on a voluntary basis and perform their activities without compensation. The Expert Council members support the Human Rights Defender’s Office in carrying out its activities as the mechanism by taking part in visits and compiling relevant documents on those visits, which are later included in the mechanism’s report. The Expert Council functions in accordance with regulations approved by the Defender. It 3