A/HRC/13/39/Add.5 means to prevent torture and to generate timely and adequate responses to allegations of abuse and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials. I have conducted fact-finding missions to 15 countries where I was able to undertake unannounced, unrestricted and unsupervised visits to places of detention, interview detainees and law enforcement personnel in private and speak to government officials and representatives of civil society. A similar mandate to visit places of detention and speak to detainees in private has been entrusted to different national (judges, prosecutors, national human rights institutions, ombuds-institutions and civil society organisations), regional (e.g. the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT) and universal (e.g. Committee against Torture, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention) mechanisms. 158. The importance of visiting bodies in preventing torture and ill-treatment has been strengthened with the adoption of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) on 18 December 2002, whose objective it is to establish a system of regular preventive visits of international and national bodies to all places of detention. The OPCAT, which has been ratified or acceded to by 50 States, establishes a Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) as an international visiting body and requires States to designate a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) on the domestic level. The OPCAT is a most innovative international instrument focused on prevention instead of prohibition. By setting out the criteria and safeguards for effective preventive visits and ensuring the implementation of international standards at the domestic level, it strikes a new and hopeful path for the prevention of torture. Therefore, I have repeatedly stressed the importance of its universal ratification and implementation. Of the countries I have visited a total of seven have ratified OPCAT, sometimes on the basis of an explicit recommendation during my visit. Nigeria did not ratify until after my visit and explicit recommendation to expedite the ratification.98 159. The international visiting body established by OPCAT, the SPT, consists of 25 independent experts and has the competence to carry out missions on the territories of the States parties where it is to be granted unrestricted access to all places of detention. It conducts unannounced and unsupervised visits to all places of detention, interviews detainees in private, assists the respective NPM and makes recommendations to States parties with a view to preventing torture and ill-treatment. The SPT started its work on 18 December 2006 and has so far conducted seven visits (Mauritius, Maldives, Sweden, Benin, Mexico, Paraguay and Honduras). This is a relatively small number in comparison to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture which has conducted 276 visits since 1990, with up to 20 visits per year. Consequently, it is to be advised that the SPT, with its recently increased capacity of 25 experts,99 will extend the scope and effectiveness of its mandate and follow the good example of the CPT. 160. The SPT is to be complemented by an NPM, the national counterpart to the SPT to undertake visits to all places of detention in the respective country. The establishment of an NPM is crucial for the prevention of torture since the SPT does not have the capacity to undertake regular and systematic visits to every State party. Furthermore, as a ‘nationally owned’ independent institution, an NPM is more likely to find acceptance in the local population and adequately follow-up on the findings and recommendations made during its visits. 98 99 A/HRC/7/3/Add.4, para. 75, (z); E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.3, para 58. With the fiftieth ratification of OPCAT by Switzerland on 24 September 2009, the number of independent experts rose from ten to 25. Article 5(1) OPCAT. 41