HOW TO READ THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MECHANISM FOR THE PREVENTION OF TORTURE (NMPT)? According to Article 23 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (hereinafter: OPCAT), national preventive mechanisms are required to draw up annual reports on their activities, and States-Parties are required to publish and disseminate those documents. This obligation has been reiterated by the UN Sub-Committee on Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) in its First Annual Report1. The annual report on the activities of the NMPT is an essential tool for communication with the society. The publications of the national preventive mechanisms inform the public about the state of respect for human rights in places where people are deprived of their liberty, educate about the subject of the prevention of torture, and disseminate knowledge about the standards of protection of people held in places of isolation. This report is divided into four parts. The first part discusses the organisational aspects of functioning of the NMPT, including its financing. The second part presents the methods of work of the NMPT, including the methodology of conducting monitoring visits, as well as the NMPT educational activities (State without Torture social campaign, international activities) and advisory activities (general intervention letters and thematic reports) carried out in 2020. The third part describes the difficulties encountered by the NMPT Team during the exercise of the mechanism’s mandate. The fourth part contains the conclusions on the monitoring visits conducted in the reported year, by individual categories of places of detention. Based on the information collected by the NMPT, each chapter describes the functioning of one type of detention facility in the time of the COVID-19 epidemic. THE REPORT PRESENTS KEY OBSERVATIONS AND OUTLINES MAIN ISSUES THAT NEED TO BE ADDRESSED IN ORDER TO INCREASE THE STANDARDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION. 1 First Annual Report of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, CAT/C/40/2, Article 28 (m). 8