CAT/OP/BRA/2/Add.1 24. Accordingly, Act No. 2847/2013 provides that the National System shall be composed of the National Committee on Preventing and Combating Torture in Brazil, the National Mechanism itself, the National Council on Criminal and Penitentiary Policy and the Ministry of Justice body responsible for the national prison system, and may also include national or state bodies, entities and authorities. Thus the National System, balances the needs of the various national institutions with relevant competence and powers for independence, effectiveness, efficiency and cooperation. 25. The Act also defined the concept of persons deprived of their liberty: persons obliged, by order of a judicial or administrative authority, to live in public or private premises, that they cannot leave independently or freely; such premises to include longterm internment facilities, detention centres, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, short-term detention centres, socio-educational institutions for adolescents in conflict with the law and military disciplinary detention centres, such as facilities run by the bodies listed under article 61 of Act No. 7210 of 11 July 1984. 26. The new definition covers all places of deprivation of liberty, and any form of detention, imprisonment, containment or custody, in public or private control or supervision facilities, or in public or private internment, shelter or treatment units. The definition of deprivation of liberty follows relevant international guidelines, and opens up new areas where the State can intervene directly to prevent torture. 27. In addition to the National Committee, the National Mechanism, the National Penitentiary Department and the National Council, the new legislation gives state committees and mechanisms, and other bodies and entities, a stronger role in the National System. As a result, states are accountable to the National System and are also eligible for resources from the Human Rights Secretariat of the Office of the President to develop policies to prevent and combat torture. This relationship will be fundamental in the coordination of public policies because, on the one hand, it will ensure that there are guidelines for action to prevent and combat torture in Brazil, and on the other, it will guarantee that states and the Federal District have federal resources to equip their committees and mechanisms3 with social participation, autonomy and independence, as stipulated in Act No. 12847. As a preventive and complementary measure, the Act establishes that, in federal entities that have not yet established their own mechanisms, or where the mechanisms are inoperative or compromised, the National Mechanism will take direct action independently. 28. With the specific objective of ensuring the operation of the National Committee and the National Mechanism, the Office of the President presented a preliminary bill to create posts in the administration of the National System. In that context, Act No. 12857 of 2 3 GE.14-42059 The structure of the Brazilian State gives states, the Federal District and local councils autonomy in respect of policies formulated by the Union. Thus Brazil’s model of public policy means that policies are not automatically binding on states or the Federal District. In order to improve the situation, the Federal Government ties resource allocations to observance of a given policy. For the policy to prevent and combat torture, the situation is no different: the Federal Government has adopted a system to prevent and combat torture, and hopes that by providing resources it can implement the same system in the federal entities. The question of torture can then be analysed in terms of adherence by committees and mechanisms to the National System, and also in terms of participation in the decisions taken by the National Penitentiary Fund, the National Public Security Fund, the National Fund for Older Persons and the National Fund for Children and Adolescents, based on the analyses conducted by the National System, the National Committee and the National Mechanism. 7