cooperation agencies are working in synergy towards the shared objective of preventing torture. The State should provide the national preventive mechanism with the necessary legal framework and human and material resources and should ensure that it has the autonomy, independence and institutional status needed in order to fulfil its role as envisaged in the Optional Protocol. This includes the hiring of more multidisciplinary staff (psychologists and health professionals, experts in issues relating to indigenous peoples, children and adolescents, women’s rights and gender, etc.); the revision and updating of manuals and protocols for visits and procedures, including methodologies for assessing indicators of progress in the prevention of torture; and an ongoing plan for training and awareness-raising on torture prevention aimed at officials with whom persons deprived of their liberty first come into contact. With regard to institutional sustainability and autonomy, the Subcommittee urges the drafting of legislation to consolidate and reinforce the original decree creating the national preventive mechanism. This will provide a stronger framework for the prevention of torture, establishing a national plan that identifies the roles of the various institutions within their respective areas of responsibility, in order to maintain a work agenda with defined commitments and monitoring and periodic evaluations, with visits to places of detention also serving as a means of monitoring progress with regard to the prevention of torture and ill-treatment. 280. The Subcommittee, mindful that the establishment of the national preventive mechanism in Mexico marked the start of the process of implementing the Optional Protocol, urges that steps be taken to reinforce the mechanism and ensure its sustainability, through its own agenda and its own reports, independently of the activities carried out by the Third Inspectorate-General within the framework of the National Human Rights Commission. 281. The Subcommittee urges the federal Government and the various state governments to comply with the recommendations issued to date by the national preventive mechanism and with its future recommendations. The State party has an international obligation to do so, as stipulated in articles 22 and 23 of the Optional Protocol which establish that: “The competent authorities of the State party concerned shall examine the recommendations of the national preventive mechanism and enter into a dialogue with it on possible implementation measures” (art. 22), and “the States Parties to the present Protocol undertake to publish and disseminate the annual reports of the national preventive mechanisms ” (art. 23). B.Safeguards for the prevention of torture and ill-treatment 1.Legal framework 282. The Subcommittee strongly recommends that appropriate legislative, administrative and any other needed measures be taken in order to bring primary and secondary legislation into compliance with international treaties on torture, particularly the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Inter American Convention to Prevent and Punish Torture. The Subcommittee also recommends that the soft law standards and principles on the issue be taken into consideration, including those established in the framework of both the United Nations and the inter-American systems (e.g. Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas). 283.In accordance with the pro homine principle, the Inter-American convention affords the greatest protection of the rights of the individual in the regional context of the Americas of which Mexico is a part. This includes the establishment of penalties that are commensurate with the seriousness of the offence, so that torture is not put on the same level as offences such as injury. This revision of the legislation should be accompanied by adequate training and awarenessraising programmes for judicial, police and prison officials on the proper way to classify and investigate allegations of torture so that investigation processes do not lead to the classification of torture as a lesser offence. 284. The Subcommittee urges the State party to encourage state-level legislatures to develop rules for implementing the reform in order to ensure that it is judicial authorities, not prosecuting authorities, who take statements from detained persons accused of any type of criminal offence. The Subcommittee also recommends that, in addition to formal controls to prevent torture, awareness training be carried out on the eradication of all forms of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during investigation or at any other time when people are under the responsibility of officials of the Office of the Public Prosecutor. The Subcommittee urges the State party to expedite the process of constitutional reform in accordance with the suggestions made here and requests that it keep the Subcommittee apprised of its progress. 285. The Subcommittee recommends that both federal and state legislation concerning the definition of torture be brought into line with international standards and that the recommendations of the Committee against Torture in that regard be followed. 286. The Subcommittee recommends that, along with the ongoing reform of the criminal justice system, a training and awareness component should be developed and implemented, with content relating to the right to defence and due process of law as means of preventing and protecting against torture and ill-treatment of accused and convicted persons deprived of their liberty. 2.Institutional framework 287. The Subcommittee recommends that the State party take steps to expedite the process of bringing federal criminal legislation into conformity with the new constitutional framework and promote the adaptation of relevant local laws, including in each case the speedy appointment of sentence enforcement judges. 288. The Subcommittee recommends that a public programme to assess and ensure prison governance be adopted and