CAT/OP/SEN/CNPMRO/1 sent several reminders, but they have gone unanswered. The Director hopes to be able to submit and publish the Observatory’s annual reports by the end of her term in office. The Subcommittee recalls its previous recommendation, whereby the Observatory should take steps to ensure that its annual reports can be submitted to and debated in Parliament as well as being submitted to the President. The Parliament, as the seat of the people’s sovereignty, should also receive the report in line with its duty to oversee the Government. 36. Reply: The Observatory agrees with the Subcommittee that its annual reports should be submitted to Parliament as well as to the President. This procedure would undoubtedly enable Parliament to exercise better oversight of the Government’s management of places of deprivation of liberty. However, this would require an amendment to the laws and regulations governing the Observatory’s mandate, mission and operations. Steps have already been taken in this regard. The Subcommittee encourages the Observatory to use its knowledge of the field to produce thematic reports exposing structural issues in the Senegalese system of deprivation of liberty, such as the practice known as retour de parquet and the insufficient or sometimes non-existent legal assistance provided to persons deprived of their liberty. 37. Reply: The Observatory, having travelled around the country and identified the issues in places of deprivation of liberty, is well aware of the need to issue thematic reports to enhance prevention efforts in view of certain structural issues that are conducive to torture and ill-treatment. Internal discussions are already under way on how more of the Observatory’s monitoring work might be devoted to thematic visits in 2021. The Subcommittee welcomes the positive results achieved by the National Observatory of Places of Deprivation of Liberty, particularly in terms of its visibility among the various national actors. It strongly encourages the Observatory to broach with the relevant authorities the Subcommittee’s recommendations on its structural and functional independence, especially from the executive branch, as well as the legislative reforms mentioned in the present report. The Observatory’s independence from the executive branch should be addressed as a matter of priority. 38. Reply: The Director of the Observatory has broached the topic of the reform of the legislation governing the Observatory with the authorities several times, particularly with respect to the Observatory’s structural and functional independence. She has held discussions with the Minister of Justice – to whom the Observatory currently reports – to sensitize him to the challenges arising from the fact that the Observatory’s methods of operation are not consonant with the provisions of the Optional Protocol, and met with the Minister Legal Counsellor to the President in September 2020. She also met with the Deputy SecretaryGeneral of the Government on 11 January 2021. This meeting provided an opportunity for an in-depth discussion with the figure responsible for the State’s legislative activity regarding the obstacles that the Observatory currently faces in trying to fulfil its mandate, including its lack of independence from a functional and structural point of view and the insufficiency of its financial resources. The Observatory has called for a total overhaul of the legislation that governs it, in order to bring Senegal into line with the provisions of the Optional Protocol and allow it to implement the recommendations made by the Subcommittee following its visits in 2012 and 2019. 39. As the government figure responsible for coordinating the State’s legislative activity, the Secretary-General of the Government is best placed to take the necessary steps to initiate a process of reform. After the meeting mentioned above, the Director drafted a memorandum, to which she attached copies of the Optional Protocol, the Paris Principles, the Subcommittee’s reports on its visits to Senegal in 2012 and 2019 and the national legislation governing the Observatory, which she sent to the Secretary-General of the Government on 31 January 2021 together with a letter requesting that he initiate reform. The Subcommittee encourages the Observatory to engage more actively with the authorities on the monitoring and implementation of its recommendations. The Observatory’s ability to exercise its role as mechanism for the prevention of torture and GE.21-03421 9