MONITORING PLACES OF DETENTION : A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR NGOS 3 EDITOR'S NOTE For a quarter of a century, the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) has defended the simple but new idea proposed by our founder Jean-Jacques Gautier, that visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty is one of the most effective ways of preventing torture and ill-treatment. The APT was thus at the origin of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture, adopted by the Council of Europe, which established a Committee of the same name empowered to visit, at any time, any place where a person is deprived of his or her liberty in any State Party to the Convention. It is also at the origin of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and was actively involved, over the past ten years, in the negotiations pertaining to this protocol. The text was finally adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2002. International mechanisms of these kinds play a crucial role in the fight against torture. They are, however, not sufficient. This is why it is essential that the work of international mechanisms be complemented by visits at the national level. The importance of external independent monitoring at the national level is increasingly being recognised and accepted. The text of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture also contains the obligation for State Parties to “set up, designate or maintain at the national level one or several visiting bodies”. Different independent actors have been able to conduct unannounced visits to places where persons are deprived of their liberty: ombudspersons, parliamentary commissions and special visiting bodies. But civil society and in particular national NGOs should also be recognised as necessary watchdogs. In a number of central European countries, national NGOs have been able to set up visit programmes. The APT and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) consider that