This manual will be useful for any person carrying out:
- monitoring visits to police stations and/or other installations, and
- preventive activities concerning the police.
Its primary users will be members of national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) operating under the requirements of the United Nations (UN) Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (OPCAT) as NPM mandates cover any type of facility where persons are, or could be, deprived of liberty, including police stations.
It is also aimed at other organisations and individuals with a mandate or power to visit such places, including universal and regional visiting mechanisms, national human rights institutions, civil society organisations, lay visitor schemes and parliamentarians.
The information in the manual will also be useful to:
- authorities responsible for police stations,
- personnel working in police stations,
- medical personnel,
- lawyers, and
- other professionals who have occasion to visit police stations.
