7 The Parliamentary Ombudsman's preventive mandate On 14 May 2013, the Norwegian Parliament, the Storting, voted in favour of Norway ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, abbreviated OPCAT. The Storting tasked the Parliamentary Ombudsman with exercising the mandate set out in OPCAT, and the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) was established in 2014 as a department under the Parliamentary Ombudsman to address this area of the Ombudsman’s work. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, represented by the NPM, makes regular visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty, such as prisons, police custody facilities, mental health care institutions and child welfare institutions. The visits can be announced or unannounced. The Parliamentary Ombudsman has right of access to all places of detention and the right to speak privately with people who have been deprived of their liberty. The Ombudsman also has right of access to all necessary information that is relevant to the conditions for people deprived of their liberty. During its visits, the NPM will endeavour to identify risk factors for violations by making its own observations and through interviews with the people involved. Interviews with people deprived of their liberty are given special priority. As part of its prevention efforts, the Parliamentary Ombudsman engages in extensive dialogue with national authorities, control and supervisory bodies in the public administration, other ombudsmen, civil society, preventive mechanisms in other countries and international organisations in the human rights field. An advisory committee has been established that contributes expertise, information, advice and input to the prevention work. 1 See the UN Convention against Torture Article 12. The UN Convention against Torture The UN Convention against Torture states that torture and ill-treatment are strictly prohibited and that no exceptions can be made from this prohibition under any circumstances. States that endorse the convention are obliged to prohibit, prevent and punish all use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. According to the Convention, each State party shall ‘ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture [or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment] has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction’.1 Norway endorsed the Convention against Torture in 1986. The Prohibition against Torture is set out in various parts of Norwegian legislation, including Article 93 of the Norwegian Constitution. — The UN Convention against Torture states that torture and ill-treatment are strictly prohibited and that no exceptions can be made from this prohibition under any circumstances. —