About the third Jean-Jacques Gautier Symposium This Symposium is the third in a series of meetings organised by the APT in Geneva with the aim of allowing National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM), the national monitoring bodies established under the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture (OPCAT), to discuss the challenges they face in the implementation of their preventive mandate and to identify good practices in relation to situations of vulnerability in detention. The Symposium offers a platform for discussion among peers and other experts. The first Symposium, organised in 2014, addressed children’s vulnerabilities in detention, while the second, in 2015, discussed the situation of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) persons deprived of their liberty. The third Jean-Jacques Gautier Symposium focused on the monitoring of psychiatric institutions. This series of meetings pay tribute to Jean-Jacques Gautier, the founder of APT, whose idea to introduce regular, unannounced visits to all places of detention is now a reality. The ratification of the OPCAT, which entails the establishment of a national (NPMs) and international (the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture) independent visiting mechanism, has been in force since 2006 and includes 83 States Parties from around the world. As part of their mandates, NPMs visit any place where persons are or are likely to be deprived of their liberty. In recent years, psychiatric institutions have received growing international attention, including from torture prevention bodies. To address situations of vulnerability of persons deprived of liberty in these institutions and to fulfil their preventive mandate, the NPMs have asked the APT to advise them in order to strengthen their capacity in this area. This third Symposium was attended by representatives from 15 National Preventive Mechanisms from around the world and by international experts, including representatives of international and regional detention monitoring bodies, of non-governmental 1