-6II. SOME BASIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE CPT's ACTIVITIES 7. The Convention establishing the CPT was opened for signature on 26 November 1987 and entered into force on 1 February 1989. By 31 December 1990 it had been ratified by 20 of the 24 member States of the Council of Europe (see Appendix 1). The first elections of CPT members took place on 19 September 1989. The Committee's first meeting was held less than two months afterwards, from 13 to 16 November 1989. 8. The CPT is composed in principle of one member from each Party. At present it has 17 members (see Appendix 2, Part A), the members in respect of Finland, Iceland and San Marino not yet having been elected. The CPT's Bureau consists of Mr A. Cassese (President), Mr B. Sørensen (First Vice-President) and Mr J. Bernheim (Second Vice-President). The CPT's Secretariat forms a distinct section of the Council of Europe's Directorate of Human Rights, and is currently made up of 5 officials (see Appendix 2, Part B). 9. Between November 1989 and December 1990, the CPT held 6 plenary meetings. The Bureau met on numerous occasions, either between or in the course of plenary meetings. 10. During the first fourteen months of its existence the CPT has in particular: i) adopted its Rules of Procedure; ii) elaborated a set of "common working tools" designed to facilitate its task of visiting places where persons are deprived of their liberty; iii) organised a series of information meetings and training sessions aimed at providing all the Committee members, regardless of their profession and past experience, with a common basic knowledge of, and a common approach to, the issues involved in visits to places of detention; iv) agreed upon some general guidelines for the conduct of visits; v) carried out four periodic visits (to Austria, Denmark, Malta and the United Kingdom) and one ad hoc visit (to Turkey); vi) drawn up, and adopted by consensus, reports on the visits to Austria and Malta and transmitted them to the Governments in question (*). __________ (*) At its plenary meeting held in January 1991, during which this General Report was adopted, the CPT adopted by consensus its report on the visit carried out in 1990 to Turkey.