A/HRC/40/20 submitted. Applicants could have requested grants of up to $25,000 for project activities to be implemented between 1 January and 31 December 2019. 7. A total of 28 applications were received concerning 16 eligible States (Argentina, Armenia, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Gabon, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Peru, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Paraguay, Togo and Senegal). In accordance with the guidelines for applications, the secretariat of the Special Fund conducted an extensive evaluation of the project proposals received by the deadline, in consultation with the OHCHR field and regional offices and the country rapporteurs of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture. The Subcommittee’s working group on the Special Fund and capacity-building reviewed the substantive part of the project proposals and recommended 13 projects for grants during its session in June 2018. Following a review by the OHCHR Grants Committee, 13 grants were awarded to projects aimed at implementing recommendations made by the Subcommittee focusing on the establishment or strengthening of national preventive mechanisms in 12 eligible States (Armenia, Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Togo and Ukraine) for a total of $299,636.00 (see annex). 8. Since its first call for applications for projects to be implemented in 2012, the Fund has supported 59 technical cooperation projects in 17 countries worldwide. Those projects have resulted in legislative changes, such as bringing laws into line with international human rights standards on torture prevention (including revised codes of criminal procedure, prison acts, laws prohibiting abusive body searches for persons deprived of their liberty), as well as laws seeking to establish national preventive mechanisms on torture; institutional changes, such as establishing or strengthening the effective functioning of national preventive mechanisms on torture or other relevant institutions; the establishment of registers of detainees; operational changes, enhancing the knowledge and skills of the judiciary and law enforcement and medical personnel; and changes to people’s lives, including in one case a reported decrease of violence against children in detention facilities. 9. As regards strengthening the functioning of national preventive mechanisms on torture, the projects have contributed to the improved knowledge and capacity of members and staff of the mechanisms in monitoring places of detention (through training, study visits to other mechanisms, elaboration of internal rules and methodologies, the production of manuals and the development of interview protocols and guidelines); to the enhanced visibility of national preventive mechanisms (through improved annual reports, their translation into national languages, radio emissions, brochures and posters); to the improved monitoring capacity of national preventive mechanisms through the purchase of technical equipment (for example, cameras and equipment to measure the size and humidity of cells); to enhanced collaboration with stakeholders (professional groups, prosecutors, the judiciary, the police, lawyers and civil society); to the improved protection of specific populations (women, persons with disabilities, children and persons with HIV/AIDS) through better monitoring; and to the improved monitoring of specific institutions or issues (psychiatric hospitals, health systems in places of detention) through training and capacitybuilding.1 10. The projects addressed gaps and needs in torture prevention, identified by the Subcommittee on the ground, and were instrumental in implementing the Subcommittee’s recommendations. The Special Fund uniquely links the recommendations of an independent treaty-based expert committee to work on the ground and can serve as an incentive for publication of the Subcommittee’s visit reports. B. Other activities of the Fund 11. Given the focus of the Fund on the establishment and strengthening of the national preventive mechanisms, and in response to increasing demand from the field, OHCHR has developed a practical guide entitled “Preventing torture: the role of national preventive 1 4 Information from the final reports on the implementation of projects submitted to the secretariat of the Special Fund by the grantees.