CAT/C/52/2 existing support structures and the Subcommittee recognizes that it is now working at the outer edges of what is conceivable within them. It is against this background that the Subcommittee has made its plans for 2014. A. Plan of work for 2014 102. The Subcommittee regrets that it was unable to recapture in 2013 the ground lost in 2012 when it had to postpone a visit for the want of sufficient secretariat support. As a result, the visit to Togo planned for 2013 had to be postponed until 2014. Nevertheless, as the Subcommittee believes it is vital for it to expand the range of its activities given the increasing number of States parties, it decided at its twentieth session that, in 2014, it will undertake eight official visits: full visits to Azerbaijan, Nicaragua and Togo (postponed from 2013); NPM advisory visits to Ecuador, Malta and the Netherlands; and an Optional Protocol advisory visit to Nigeria, with a follow-up visit in accordance with article 13, paragraph 4, of the Optional Protocol. 103. In addition to its visiting programme and NPM related activities, the Subcommittee is now also using its website and the present report to solicit comments and suggestions relating to a number of issues on which it is developing its thinking. While appreciating that confidentiality is pivotal to its operation, the Subcommittee will continue to explore potential avenues to engage with other bodies and organizations whose work is cognate to its own. B. The challenge of resources 104. In recent years, the Subcommittee has consciously avoided commenting at length on the inadequacy of the resources made available for its work. It remains aware that it must work efficiently within the budgetary allocations made available to it by OHCHR within the overall budgetary envelope. The Subcommittee is very grateful to those States which, recognizing the inadequacy of that provision, have striven in various ways to address its needs. 105. It is, however, apparent to the Subcommittee that, in order to fulfil its current plans for 2014 and beyond, it is essential that a stable, core secretariat be in place to service its cycle of work; that has been sadly lacking in recent times. The 2014 programme of work of the Subcommittee requires at the minimum that the core secretariat of the Subcommittee be returned to its level of two years ago (2 General Service and 3 Professional staff members). The Subcommittee secretariat needs to be further strengthened in line with the High Commissioner’s recommendation in her report on the strengthening of the human rights treaty bodies (A/66/860), in which she acknowledged the need for additional resources. In conjunction with the supportive arrangements entered into by others, this would suffice to ensure that the Subcommittee is able to carry out its projected programme of work in the short term. 106. It must remain a matter of speculative conjecture how, in the longer term, the Subcommittee can possibly aspire to continue to meet the ever increasing desire of States parties and NPMs to work with the Subcommittee in order to ensure that the spectre of torture is diminished without there being a fundamental reappraisal of the nature of the provision which is made for its work. 22