CAT/OP/MRT/2 12. In addition to the meetings and the visit carried out with the mechanism, the Subcommittee met with representatives of the Government of Mauritania and members of the National Bar Association, the National Human Rights Commission, civil society and some United Nations organizations with offices in Mauritania. III. Establishment of the national mechanism for the prevention of torture in Mauritania 13. Mauritania signed the Optional Protocol on 27 September 2011 and ratified it on 3 October 2012. 14. Initially the idea was that the mechanism would be attached to the National Human Rights Commission, the national advisory body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights in Mauritania, which obtained A status accreditation from the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions in May 2011.1 The Commission’s terms of reference include the power to make unannounced visits to all prisons and detention facilities. 15. The idea of attaching the mechanism to the Commission was later dropped in favour of creating an autonomous body, and Act No. 2015-034 establishing the mechanism was promulgated on 10 September 2015. 16. In accordance with the Act, the mechanism consists of a chair and 12 members: 2 representatives of the National College of Physicians, 2 representatives of the National Bar Association, 2 independent public figures, 5 representatives of civil society organizations working in the field of human rights and a member of academia. Members are chosen by a selection board that was established by ministerial decree in January 2016. It comprises nine members drawn from several ministries (Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior and Decentralization and Ministry of Culture, Crafts and Relations with Parliament) and from the social and professional sectors represented on the mechanism (doctors, lawyers, academics, non-governmental organizations and independent public figures), and it is chaired by the Mauritanian Commissioner for Human Rights, Humanitarian Action and Relations with Civil Society. 17. A call for applications was published in the Official Gazette and broadcast on radio and the four television channels over a period of two weeks. Once a list of valid applications had been drawn up, the Committee selected, by absolute majority, twice the number required by law for the mechanism, i.e., 24, and forwarded their applications to the President of the Republic, who then chose the mechanism’s members and Chair. According to the Act, at least one-third of the members must be women. 18. The Association for the Prevention of Torture, in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Mauritania and the Mauritanian Commissioner for Human Rights, Humanitarian Action and Relations with Civil Society, ran a workshop on 29 February 2016 for members of the selection board on the legal and operational aspects of the mechanism’s mandate. A second workshop was held on 1 March for representatives of civil society, the National College of Physicians, the National Bar Association and academia. 19. On 20 April 2016, the President of the Republic issued Decree No. 105-2016 appointing the Chair and the 12 members of the mechanism. The Chair of the mechanism is Mohamed Lemine Ould Haless, Chair of the Human Rights Network. 20. On 14 June 2016 the Prime Minister issued Decree No. 2016-110 establishing the honorariums and privileges of the mechanism, giving the Chair the rank of minister and the Secretary-General the rank of ministerial secretary-general. The Decree also states that the members of the mechanism’s Committee shall each receive a quarterly honorarium of 400,000 ouguiyas and that the mechanism’s members shall each receive a quarterly 1 4 In other words, it is in conformity with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights. GE.18-15827