Every year, in every kind of setting where people are detained, thousands of visits take place to monitor for human rights violations. Those visits, to prisons, police cells, mental health hospitals, are by volunteers. In this episode I talk to four key players in the "National Preventative Mechanism" - Alison Thomson, ,Anne Finlayson, Dame Anne Owersand  Louise Finer who tell me about their work and why it matters. This interview was recorded before COVID-19 hit so I have added a short extra interview with Professor Sir Malcolm Evans,  Chair of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, who gives an update on how monitoring systems worldwide are working (or not) during the pandemic. More info at www.betterhumanpodcast.com