ANNUAL SPECIAL REPORT 2017 11 special competences guarantees its prestige and reliability in the protection of prisoners’ rights and adhering to international standards concerning detention conditions. The expertise created is reflected in several of the Authority’s reports and is available to all policy implementing agencies, while we are pleased to see an increasing number of our proposals being adopted by the administration and incorporated in national legislation. This report reflects the NPM’s operation in 2017, regarding visits to and inspections of detention sites, as well as interventions on the institutional level, and includes its networking and collaborations with corresponding social entities. Apart from the development of the NPM’s operational actions nationally, 2017 marked the reinforcement of the Mechanism’s international presence (especially at the European level), through participation in European or regional meetings and accession to fora and networks, which enhanced the sharing of expertise and experience with peer entities. The findings of the inspections the Mechanism conducted in each detention site, as well as specific recommendations to the administration are cited in detail in the relevant chapters of this report. On a general note, however, ensuring policy terms and rising to international standards of detention conditions requires thorough planning and intervention in other areas, that precede or follow detention in itself - such as, mainly, strategic planning, operational objectives and programmatic actions in the relevant policy areas (criminal, penitentiary, immigration, refugee, psychiatric, welfare), which decisively affect the terms and conditions of detention in each detention site (prisons, pre-removal centers, police and coastguard cells, psychiatric hospitals and units, welfare institutions). The Greek Ombudsman will continue to serve its legal policy mandate, exercising its special competence as NPM in the context of restraint institutions themselves. Indeed, entrusting the State’s external monitoring of detention conditions to a constitutionally designated Independent Authority serves not only the typical lawfulness of handling deprivation of liberty, but also the essential core of limiting restraint policy vis-à-vis human rights. In this respect, any detention regime (be it criminal, administrative, psychiatric or welfare) should ensure both the fulfillment of legality standards and the accountability of its operators, so that it operates in a context of transparency, compatible with legal policy considerations. ● ——George P. Nikolopoulos Deputy Ombudsman for Human Rights