EN_CPT_AR.book Page 44 Monday, October 25, 2010 5:14 PM CPT General Report 2009-2010 89. The proportion of women among the CPT’s membership currently stands at 18 out of 44. In other words, applying the less-than-40% standard applied by the Parliamentary Assembly when examining lists of candidates, neither of the sexes is at present under-represented on the Committee. As for the spread of professional experience within the CPT, it remains on the whole satisfactory after the renewal of one half of the Committee’s membership that occurred at the end of 2009. However, the Committee still requires more members with first-hand knowledge of the work of law enforcement agencies (police/ gendarmerie). 90. The next biennial renewal of one half of the CPT’s membership will occur at the end of 2011. The election procedure for the 22 seats concerned has already been set in motion, by a letter from the Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly to the relevant national delegations in the Assembly. Hopefully, this will make it possible for the elections in respect of all the seats to take place in good time before the term-of-office expiry date of 19 December 2011. This would greatly facilitate the planning of the Committee’s visits for the following year. 91. The CPT hopes that those States that have not already done so will heed the Assembly’s invitation, made in Resolution 1540 (2007), to review their national selection procedures and, inter alia, to introduce: public calls for candidatures; consultation on suitable candidates with relevant state and non-governmental bodies; interviews with shortlisted candidates to assess their qualifications, motivation and availability, as well as their language skills. This will ensure that the persons placed on lists of candidates forwarded by the national delegations in the Assembly are all capable of making an effective contribution to the Committee’s activities. 92. The Committee also wishes to draw attention to the stipulation in Article 4, paragraph 4, of the ECPT, that CPT members shall be independent and impartial. As the Explanatory Report to the Convention makes clear, this implies that candidates who would have a conflict of interests or who otherwise might have difficulties in satisfying the requirements of independence and impartiality will not be proposed or elected. The CPT trusts that all the bodies involved in the election process will keep this in mind. 44