1.4. npms and judiciary – the current status of engagement According to an EU wide research conducted on the follow-up procedures of NPM recommendations the relationship between the judiciary and NPMs remains weak.257 Although the important impact and role of NPMs as well as judges in torture prevention is widely recognised, there is still a lot of potential to increase the frequency and quality of the interactions between the two institutions. Research conducted in the framework of this project has shown an apparent lack of awareness and limited interaction between judges and NPMs in the different national contexts. 65% of NPMs have no or almost no relationship with their judiciary A survey conducted among NPMs in the EU in the current project confirmed this, with 65% of the NPMs questioned stating that they do not have any relationship at all or almost no relationship with the judiciary of their own country. 20 of the 22 NPMs surveyed indicated that they do not have any form of institutional exchange with the judiciary. More than a third of surveyed judges had not heard of NPMs One of the reasons explaining the scarce cooperation is that judges seem to lack awareness of the existence of NPMs and the scope of their mandate, despite at least some dissemination efforts from the side of the NPMs. Several judges surveyed in the context of the project confirmed this assumption, with approximately 34% not knowing NPMs, and with 59% indicating that they had little or no contact with NPMs. This was confirmed in the workshop conducted for judges in the framework of this project, where many had not heard of NPMs even in countries where NPMs are long established. Apart from a limited awareness regarding the role of NPMs, several additional reasons might explain the fairly low level of any sort of relationships between judiciary and NPMs at the domestic level. Firstly, many NPMs in the EU are established as part of Ombuds institutions and their mandate often explicitly excludes the monitoring of the judiciary. While the OPCAT itself does not foresee such limits on the NPM’s mandate, many NPMs are bound by rather restrictive national laws in this regard. 257 68 Birk et al. (2015) p. 68.