MONITORING MECHANISMS OF PLACES WHERE CHILDREN ARE DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY C. NATIONAL MECHANISMS At the end, complemented by international and regional monitoring bodies, there are national monitoring bodies. The following list is a non-exhaustive list of the different types of national monitoring bodies that have been identified through the national research performed in the framework of the “Children’s Rights Behind Bars” project. Statutory Monitoring bodies These are monitoring bodies whose responsibilities and functions are established by law. In order to guarantee their independence, they should be established by and accountable to the Parliament to whom they report publicly. It should be legislated for them have full access to all kind of places where children are deprived of their liberty and produce reports to authorities that shall follow up on their recommendations. NPMs established under the OPCAT NPMs are independent external bodies (existing or to be created) able to carry out unannounced visits to all places where people, including children are deprived of their liberty, to establish reports including recommendations and to follow up their implementation. States Parties are free to choose the type of body that is most appropriate to their particular legal context (ex: a national human rights institution, an ombudsperson, a parliamentary commission, an NGO, etc.) and whether the NPM should be unique or should form a system of several bodies or commissions based on a regional or thematic division of task for example. The SPT adopted (in 2010) a set of Guidelines on national preventive mechanisms in order “to add further clarity regarding the expectations of the SPT regarding the establishment and operation of NPMs” as well as an Analytical self-assessment tool for NPMs. 43 3