The members of the Committee reiterated their agreement in principle with the establishment of a system of preventive visits to places of detention at the global level and reaffirmed that the text of the draft optional protocol submitted by Costa Rica provided a valuable basis for discussion in the open-ended inter-sessional working group of the Commission on Human Rights. In addition, members of the Committee made a number of observations concerning the text of specific articles of the draft optional protocol. 19. 20. With regard to article 8, paragraph 2, of the draft optional protocol, members of the Committee were of the view that the text should be changed or an additional paragraph added to outline in more detail how the relationship between the Committee against Torture and the subcommittee to be established under the optional protocol would be affected by the postponement of a scheduled mission by the latter in cases where a State party had agreed to receive a visit of the Committee against Torture under article 20 of the Convention. 21. With regard to article 9, paragraph 1, of the draft optional protocol, the members of the Committee were of the view that the term "may" appearing at the beginning of the second sentence of paragraph 1, should be replaced by the term "shall". They were also of the view that consideration should be given to adding a paragraph to article 9 which would exhort all the international and regional organs or organizations concerned to engage in the fullest cooperation with each other. 22. With regard to article 15 of the draft optional protocol, the members of the Committee were of the view that its provisions unduly restricted the information that should be made available to the Committee against Torture in respect of its jurisdiction under article 20 of the Convention. They accordingly suggested that the following proposal be taken into consideration as an alternative to article 15 of the draft optional protocol or to any other relevant provision: "The subcommittee shall submit to the Committee against Torture the following reports: (a) Reports which the State party concerned wishes to be pUblished; (b) Reports upon which the subcommittee wishes the Committee against Torture to make a public statement; (c) Reports which in the SUbcommittee's op1n1on reveal that systematic torture has been practised by a State party; (d) Reports concerning a State party in respect of which the Committee against Torture has indicated to the subcommittee that an inquiry in accordance with article 20 of the Convention against Torture is under consideration; The reports under (b), (c) and (d) shall be dealt with by the Committee against Torture 1J,1 private meetings. 11 -5Digitized by Dag Hammarskjöld Library

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