HISTORY AND LEGAL BASIS 2 – HISTORY AND LEGAL BASIS 10 December 1948 10 December 1984 26 November 1987 18 December 2002 20 September 2006 26 August 2008 20 November 2008 4 December 2008 1 May 2009 25 June 2009 23/24 June 2010 1 September 2010 24 September 2010 10 June 2013 6 November 2014 1 January 2015 UN General Assembly Resolution (adopting the General Declaration of Human Rights), including the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN Convention against Torture) European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 10 December 1984 (OPCAT) Germany signs the Optional Protocol The Optional Protocol is implemented in German law by means of an act of assent of the German Bundestag The Federal Agency is created by organisational decree of the Federal Ministry of Justice Germany ratifies the Optional Protocol; appointment of an honorary Director to the Federal Agency The Federal Agency takes up its work, based in the headquarters of the Centre for Criminology in Wiesbaden Signing of the State Treaty on the Establishment of the Joint Commission on the Prevention of Torture by means of a State Treaty between all the Länder The members of the Joint Commission are appointed at the 81st Conference of the Ministers of Justice of the Länder Entry into force of the State Treaty on the Establishment of the Joint Commission and the Administrative Agreement between the Federal Government and the Länder on the National Agency for the Prevention of Torture Official inauguration of the Joint Commission by the Ministry of Justice of Hesse in Wiesbaden Appointment of a Deputy Director to the Federal Agency Appointment of four additional honorary members to the Joint Commission at the 85th Conference of the Ministers of Justice of the Länder The new members of the Joint Commission take up their work The legal basis for the work of the National Agency can be found at: www.nationale-stelle.de. 77