A/HRC/7/3/Add.2 page 53 • • Laituri Prison - the construction of a new prison in Laituri has been started. The prison will be designed for 3,000 inmates. Ninotsminda Prison- the construction of Ninotsminda Prison has been started. The future establishment is designed for 3,000 inmates and will be in line with international standards. Construction is financed fully from the state budget. Prevention 226. Recommendation (o) stated: In accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, a truly independent monitoring mechanism be established, whose members would be appointed for a fixed period and not subject to dismissal, to visit all places where persons are deprived of their liberty throughout the country. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, such a mechanism could be situated in an independent national human rights institution established in accordance with the Paris Principles, the basis of which might be the Public Defender’s Office. This national institution should also be vested with investigatory powers in relation to allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and provided with the necessary financial and human resources, and appropriate capacity-building, to carry out its functions effectively; 227. According to non-governmental sources, one year after the ratification of the Optional Protocol, an independent National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) as envisaged in OPCAT remains to be established. The President issued Presidential Decree No. 369 of 20 June 2007 approving the establishment of the interagency coordination council to implement actions against torture, inhuman and degrading treatment. On the tenmember council are different state agencies (Parliament; Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, Education and Science, Labour, Health and Social Security; the judiciary; and the General Prosecutor’s Office), international and national NGOs are represented. Under the charter of the council its mandate is wide if not vague: monitoring, elaboration of the recommendations to the president, assistance and coordination of antitorture activities, and assistance to NPMs’ activities. However, in reality there is no NPM and the members of the council and invited experts do not have the authority to conduct monitoring. The decision to elaborate a model for the NPM has been postponed. For now the council works on the Anti-Torture Action Plan 2008-2009. The draft AntiTorture Action Plan 2008-2009 envisages the creation of an NPM but it is not clear what the guarantees for independence are. A proposal to evaluate the implementation of the 2003-2005 Anti-Torture Action Plan was ignored. 228. As for other mechanisms related to torture prevention, there are the following public monitoring possibilities: the public monitoring commission in the penitentiary system set up pursuant to the Decree of the Minister of Justice No. 2190 on “Approval of the model charter of commissions of penitentiaries” of 29 November 2005; and the list of well-known persons from the civil sector to whom the President granted the authority to visit any penitentiary in the country. Both mechanisms cannot be considered as sufficient and effective tools of torture prevention. The public commissions at the penitentiaries