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Annex 2 – Full text of the OPCAT
Article 14
1 In order to enable the Subcommittee on Prevention to fulfil its mandate,
the States Parties to the present Protocol undertake to grant it:
(a) Unrestricted access to all information concerning the number of
persons deprived of their liberty in places of detention as defined in
article 4, as well as the number of places and their location;
(b) Unrestricted access to all information referring to the treatment of
those persons as well as their conditions of detention;
(c) Subject to paragraph 2 below, unrestricted access to all places of detention and their installations and facilities;
(d) The opportunity to have private interviews with the persons deprived
of their liberty without witnesses, either personally or with a translator
if deemed necessary, as well as with any other person who the Subcommittee on Prevention believes may supply relevant information;
(e) The liberty to choose the places it wants to visit and the persons it
wants to interview.
2 Objection to a visit to a particular place of detention may be made only on
urgent and compelling grounds of national defense, public safety, natural disaster or serious disorder in the place to be visited that temporarily
prevent the carrying out of such a visit. The existence of a declared state
of emergency as such shall not be invoked by a State Party as a reason to
object to a visit.
Article 15
No authority or official shall order, apply, permit or tolerate any sanction against any person or organization for having communicated to the
Subcommittee on Prevention or to its delegates any information, whether
true or false, and no such person or organization shall be otherwise prejudiced in any way.
Article 16
1 The Subcommittee on Prevention shall communicate its recommendations and observations confidentially to the State Party and, if relevant, to
the national preventive mechanism.
2 The Subcommittee on Prevention shall publish its report, together with
any comments of the State Party concerned, whenever requested to do so
by that State Party. If the State Party makes part of the report public, the
Subcommittee on Prevention may publish the report in whole or in part.
However, no personal data shall be published without the express consent
of the person concerned.
3 The Subcommittee on Prevention shall present a public annual report on
its activities to the Committee against Torture.
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