npm annual report 2016 / activities The legal adviser responsible for prisoners’ health care matters at the Office also met the new director of the Prisoners’ Health Care Unit in June. Among other things, the parties agreed on procedures concerning the flow of information. Before visits to psychiatric units, the NPM has also contacted non-governmental organisations (NGO). During the reporting year, it contacted the National Family Association Promoting Mental Health in Finland (FinFami) and its local associations in the regions of Pirkanmaa and South Karelia. In the field of social welfare, reports on visits are often also sent to the relevant regional state administrative agency for information. 2.4 International cooperation The collaboration of the Nordic NPM network continued with a meeting organised by the Swedish NPM in Stockholm in June 2016. In addition to Swedish representatives, the meeting included participants from the Norwegian, Danish and Finnish NPMs. The Swedish participants also included a psychiatrist who acts as an external expert of the Swedish NPM. The event focused on visits to psychiatric institutions. The NPMs discussed, in particular, their observations about the long periods of seclusion and restraint experienced by psychiatric patients. The participants also visited the Helix psychiatric hospital. It was agreed that the Finnish NPM would organise the next meeting with a focus on the inspection methods used in different countries, interviewing techniques and the use of external experts. The meeting was held in January 2017. A separate training day on interviewing techniques and the use of external experts was organised in connection with the meeting. In October 2016, Finland hosted a meeting of Baltic and Nordic ombudsmen. The second day of the event was dedicated to discussions on the functions of NPMs. The topic was introduced by Lithuanian and Finnish representatives. The participants also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the OPCAT. On the international United Nations Day on 24 October 2016, staff from the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman participated in an event organised by the Human Rights Centre, the UN Association of Finland and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on the theme “50 years of UN Human Rights Conventions”. One of the purposes of the seminar was to consider how Finland can promote the respect for and implementation of human rights. As one of the speakers, Parliamentary Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen discussed the topic “Implementation of fundamental and human rights: the significance of UN human rights conventions”. In October 2016, the Finnish NPM issued a statement to the UN Committee against Torture (CAT) on how the implementation of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has progressed in Finland and how the activities of the NPM have contributed to the imple- 15