CPT: 18TH GENERAL REPORT 13 ORGANISATIONAL MATTERS The Convention establishing the CPT (ECPT) CPT membership 29. All 47 member States of the Council of Europe are Parties to the ECPT. As the map in Appendix 3 makes clear, the Committee’s field of operations covers, with one notable exception, almost the entire territory of Europe. 31. At the time of publication of this General Report, the CPT has 45 members. The seats in respect of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sweden are vacant. It remains open to the Committee of Ministers to invite any non-member State to accede to the Convention. When the time is ripe from a political standpoint, an invitation to Belarus to accede to the Convention would be both a sign of the Council of Europe’s wish to forge closer links with that country and a reminder of the obligations which membership of the Organisation entails. Nine new CPT members were elected during the twelve months covered by this General Report: Dan Dermengiu (in respect of Romania), Marzena Ksel (in respect of Poland), Sonja Kurtén-Vartio (in respect of Finland), Maria Rita Morganti (in respect of San Marino), Dajena Pollo Kumbaro (in respect of Albania), Ilvija Pūce (in respect of Latvia), Anna Šabatová (in respect of the Czech Republic), Zoreslava Shkiryak-Nyzhnyk (in respect of Ukraine) and Arman Vardanyan (in respect of Armenia). 30. In March 2008, the CPT raised with the United Kingdom authorities the question of the application of the ECPT to the country’s Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. At present, the Convention does not apply to these Areas, as they have not been included in the declarations made to date by the United Kingdom under Article 20 of the Convention (by which a State can specify the territories to which the Convention shall apply). In contrast, the European Convention on Human Rights is operative within the Sovereign Base Areas, a declaration to this effect having been made in 2004. Further, the following members were reelected: Celso José Das Neves Manata (in respect of Portugal), Haritini Dipla (in respect of Greece), Mario Felice (in respect of Malta), Eugenijus Gefenas (in respect of Lithuania), Pétur Hauksson (in respect of Iceland), Latif Hüseynov (in respect of Azerbaijan), Petros Michaelides (in respect of Cyprus), Marc Nève (in respect of Belgium), Vladimir Ortakov (in respect of “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Mauro Palma (in respect of Italy), Joan-Miquel Rascagneres (in respect of Andorra), and Elena Sereda (in respect of Russia) The United Kingdom’s Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus do have places where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority. In spite of that, they are the only territory within Europe for whose international relations the United Kingdom is responsible to which the ECPT does not yet apply and, moreover, the only such territory where the European Convention on Human Rights is applicable but not the ECPT. The CPT has invited the United Kingdom authorities to correct this anomaly. 32. The following members of the CPT left the Committee during the last twelve months, on the expiry of their terms of office: Mario Benedettini (San Marino), Fatmir Braka (Albania), Ladislav Getlik (Slovak Republic), Zdeněk Hajek (Czech Republic), Zbigniew Hołda (Poland), Asya Khachatryan (Armenia), Veronica Pimenoff (Finland), Florin Stanescu (Romania) and Vitolds Zahars (Latvia). Further, Anne-Marie Orler (elected in respect of Sweden) resigned from the Committee on 7 April 2008. The CPT wishes to sincerely thank all the above persons for their contributions to the Committee’s work.