- 15 IV. THE EMPHASIS PLACED ON THE PREVENTIVE NATURE OF THE CPT's FUNCTIONS 45. As already stated (see paragraphs 2 to 6) the CPT is not a fact-finding body similar to other bodies existing in the area of human rights. The task of fact-finding with which the CPT has been entrusted must be geared to forestalling possible acts or practices of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. To put it differently: the main purpose of the Committee's fact-finding is not the minute and punctilious establishment of whether or not serious abuses have actually occurred that characterises a judicial or quasi-judicial process. Rather, the CPT has a much broader remit: it must ascertain whether, in places where persons are deprived of their liberty by a public authority, there are general or specific conditions or circumstances that are likely to degenerate into torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or are at any rate conducive to such inadmissible acts or practices. 46. The above does not exclude, of course, an element of fact-finding or supervision relating to events in the recent past, especially in the case of ad hoc visits, where the visit is triggered by serious and consistent allegations of grave abuses in a particular country. In these cases, one of the tasks of the CPT is plainly to verify on the spot whether or not those allegations are well-founded. But even in such cases, the CPT's overarching duty is broader than merely reporting on the allegations; rather, it must look into the general conditions surrounding the alleged abuses and, if need be, suggest ways of both stopping the abuses in the immediate and of preventing their reoccurrence in the future. 47. Four important consequences follow from the fact that "prevention" constitutes the lynchpin of the whole monitoring system set up by the Convention. 48. First, the CPT must always look into the general conditions of detention existing in the countries visited. It must examine not only whether abuses are actually occurring but also be attentive to those "indicators" or "early signs" pointing to possible future abuses. For instance, it must - and indeed does scrutinise the physical conditions of detention (the space available to detainees; lighting and ventilation; washing and toilet facilities; eating and sleeping arrangements; the medical care provided by the authorities, etc.) as well as the social conditions (for example, relationships with other detainees and the law enforcement personnel; links with families, social workers, the outside world in general, etc.). The CPT also pays close attention to the extent to which certain basic safeguards against ill-treatment exist in the country visited e.g. notification of police custody; access to a lawyer; access to a medical doctor; the possibilities of lodging complaints about ill-treatment or conditions of detention. 49. Second, often one cannot understand and assess the conditions under which persons are deprived of their liberty in a given country without considering those conditions in their general (historical, social, economic) context. Although human dignity must be effectively respected in all Parties to the Convention, the background of each of these countries varies, and can account for differences in their response to human rights issues. It follows that, to fulfil its task of preventing abuses, the CPT must often look into the underlying causes of general or specific conditions conducive to mistreatment.