GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL AGENCY 1 – BACKGROUND The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture (National Agency) is Germany’s designated national preventive mechanism, and thus operates at the interface between national law and the relevant international treaties, primarily the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN Convention against Torture). The National Agency’s special status and further background information regarding its structure will be outlined in the following. the German Judiciary Act. The National Agency has a Secretariat staffed with full-time employees and is based in the Centre for Criminology (KrimZ) in Wiesbaden. The Federal Agency and the Joint Commission work closely when it comes to planning and carrying out their activities, and are supported in this by the Secretariat. They hold regular joint working sessions to that end. 1.2 – TASKS 1.1 – INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK The principle task of the National Agency is to visit those facilities in which people are deprived of their liberty (“places of detention”), to draw attention to problems, and to make recommendations and suggestions to the authorities for improving the situation of detainees and for preventing torture and other illtreatment. In accordance with Article 4 para. 1 of the OPCAT, a place of detention is any place under a State Party’s jurisdiction and control where persons are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public authority or at its instigation or with its explicit consent or acquiescence. At the federal level this definition encompasses all of the approx. 280 detention facilities operated by the Federal Armed Forces, Federal Police and customs authorities. The Federal Agency is also responsible for monitoring forced returns being accompanied by the Federal Police. The overwhelming majority of places of detention, however, fall within the remit of the Joint Commission. As of May 2015 these comprised 186 organisationally independent prisons, approx. 1,430 Land police stations, more than 300 psychiatric hospitals, all courts with holding cells, seven facilities enforcing custody pending deportation, and approx. 27 child and youth welfare facilities with closed units. The around 10,900 residential care homes and nursing homes for the elderly in Germany are also considered places of detention under the above definition. In September 2014 several incidents involving assaults on the occupants of reception centres for asylum seekers in North Rhine-Westphalia by staff employed by private security firms made the headlines. It appears that one person was deprived of their liberty on account of being locked in a room. The National Agency subsequently asked the Länder to provide information about the use of private security services in refugee centres and the possibility of people being deprived of their liberty. Thirteen of the 16 Länder to The prevention of torture and ill-treatment is laid down in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). It supplements the UN Convention against Torture of 1984 by means of a preventive approach. Article 3 of the OPCAT requires that the States Parties set up, designate or maintain a national preventive mechanism. These mechanisms complement the work of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT), which was also established on the basis of the OPCAT. The National Agency was set up to act as Germany’s national preventive mechanism. It comprises the Federal Agency for the Prevention of Torture (Federal Agency), which is responsible for facilities run at federal level, and the Joint Commission of the Länder for the Prevention of Torture (Joint Commission), which is responsible for facilities at Länder (federal state) level. In accordance with Article 18 of the OPCAT, the States Parties are obliged to guarantee the functional independence of the national preventive mechanisms and to make available the necessary financial resources The Director and Deputy Director of the Federal Agency are appointed by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection; the Chair and three (as of 2015: seven) members of the Joint Commission are appointed by the Conference of Ministers of Justice of the Länder. The members of the National Agency are not subject to any technical or legal supervision and are independent in the exercise of their functions. They act on an honorary basis and may resign their office at any time. They may only be removed before the end of their term in office subject to the strict conditions set out in sections 21 and 24 of 10