(a) Strengthen the independence of the PMCs and provide them with the ability to carry out unannounced visits to all parts of all places of deprivation of liberty, including temporary and pre-trial detention facilities, LTPs, administrative detentions as well as psychiatric institutions, and to speak privately with any person deprived of his or her liberty. Ensure that PMCs include diverse and qualified legal and medical professionals familiar with the relevant international standards, as well as representatives of independent civil society organisations and human rights experts; (b) Publish information on the findings, recommendations and the follow-up on the outcome of each such visit, in a timely manner following the visit; (c) Grant access to independent national and international monitors to all detention facilities in the country, including police lock-ups, temporary and pre-trial detention centres, LTPs, pre-trial detention facilities managed by security agency, administrative detention areas, detention units of medical and psychiatric institutions and prisons; (d) Strengthen the cooperation with United Nations human rights mechanisms, as accepted by the State party in the context of the universal periodic review in 2015 (A/HRC/30/3, paras. 127.33, 127.34), and invite the Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit the State party; (e) Consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention, which provides for international and national mechanisms for the prevention of torture in places where persons are deprived of their liberty. Enforced disappearances 35. The Committee regrets that the State party has failed to conduct an impartial and effective investigation of several unresolved cases of enforced disappearances in particular of the former Minister of the Interior, Yury Zakharenko, the former First Secretary Chairman of the dissolved Belarusian Parliament, Viktor Gonchar and a businessman, Anatoly Krasovsky (arts. 2, 11, 12, 14 and 16). 36. Recalling its previous concluding observations (CAT/C/BLR/CO/4, para. 9), the Committee urges the State party to undertake thorough, impartial and effective investigations by an independent body into all outstanding cases of alleged enforced disappearances and prosecute the perpetrators and provide effective remedies and redress to the families of the victims, including fair and adequate compensation, and as full rehabilitation as possible, including any necessary psychological, social or financial support. Violence against women 37. The Committee appreciates that the State party has established a national hotline for victims of domestic violence, awareness-raising campaigns, and offices for mobile service and amended the Crime Prevention Act. However, the Committee is concerned at reports from the Council of Europe that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus acknowledges that its officials receive 200 reports of violence in the family each day, but that most cases do not reach the courts. The State party’s reply to the List of Issues indicated that there were 3,123 cases concerning “acts of sexual or domestic violence against women and children” on which criminal proceedings were begun and sent to the Office of the Procurator out of nearly 6,000 received, and that only 364 cases are in progress. The Committee regrets that the State party has not provided information on the crimes under which such cases were charged nor the data requested on the outcome of the prosecutions in terms of criminal convictions and other relevant punishments or measures taken. The Committee notes that the State party is still preparing a draft act on the prevention of domestic violence, but remains concerned that, to date, domestic violence and marital rape are not classified as criminal offenses and that the State party did not indicate that any perpetrators of such acts had been convicted of criminal offenses. The Committee regrets reports that the police commonly counsel reconciliation and fail to register and investigate most cases presented to them. The Committee also regrets the absence of information it requested on protection and redress measures provided by the State party to victims of domestic violence or on the availability 9