contradicts the requirements of the Organic Law of Georgia on the Public Defender of Georgia, according to which, any meeting shall be confidential. The purpose of this kind of obstruction is to weaken prisoners’ trust towards the Public Defender's Office and to limit the effective functioning of the Office in this direction. Based on the above, on January 24, 2020, the Public Defender addressed the Prosecutor General’s Office of Georgia with a proposal to launch an investigation under Article 352 of the Criminal Code, to conduct all necessary investigative activities in a timely and effective manner and to identify responsible persons. The reply received from the Prosecutor General’s Office on January 31, 2019 reads that the investigative agency could not identify any legal or factual grounds for launching an investigation. The Prosecutor’s Office did not consider the disclosure of the secrecy of the meeting between the Public Defender and the convicts a violation of confidentiality. In accordance with Article 20 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, national preventive mechanisms shall have "unrestricted access to all places of detention and their installations and facilities" in order to be able to fulfil their mandate, as well as “an opportunity to have private interviews with the persons deprived of their liberty, without witnesses, either personally or with a translator if deemed necessary, as well as with any other person who may supply relevant information to the national preventive mechanisms.” According to Article 21 of the Optional Protocol, “Confidential information collected by the national preventive mechanism shall be privileged. No personal data shall be published without the express consent of the person concerned." In addition, Article 21 of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture underscores that: „No authority or official shall order, apply, permit or tolerate any sanction against any person or organization for having communicated to the national preventive mechanism any information, whether true or false, and no such person or organization shall be otherwise prejudiced in any way”. These international norms refer to the right of the Public Defender/members of the Special Preventive Group to have unrestricted access to the places of detention/deprivation of liberty and the opportunity to have private interviews with persons placed in the above facilities, as well as to the safeguards against the risk of repression of the above persons for meeting with the Public Defender/members of the Special Preventive Group and provision of information to them. The above norms are the most important and essential guarantees for the effective functioning of the National Preventive Mechanism and prohibition and prevention of torture. Any step taken against these norms would be a significant blow to the fulfillment of commitments by the State under the Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol. 16