15 Under the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia50, Protector of Citizens is designated as the independent state organ which safeguards the rights of citizens and controls the activities of the bodies of government administration, as well as of any authority with the exercise of public powers51. The Law on the Protector of Citizens52 lays down that the Protector of Citizens is independent, autonomous in performing its duties, a state body which safeguards and looks after promotion of citizens’ rights53. In April 2010 the Protector of Citizens was recognized as the body acting on the basis of the Paris principles54. The Protector of Citizens independent, autonomous state body, a general-type Parliamentary Ombudsman, accredited as a National Human Rights Institution, with„А“status. The Law on the Protector of Citizens lays down that the Protector of Citizens is entitled to visit institutions at which persons deprived of their liberty (PDLs) are kept, have private interview with the persons deprived of their liberty and any employee in the institution, access any information, which are of importance for the fulfillment of the goal of his preventive operation, regardless of the degree of confidentiality of such information55. Protector of Citizens’ competence in respect to the protection of rights of persons deprived of their liberty, under The Law on the Protector of Citizens, is equivalent to the NPM mandate, laid down in the Optional Protocol. The appointment of the Protector of Citizens to carry out duties of NPM, was influenced by the fact that the montoring team of the Protector of Citizens, symbolically called Preventive Mechanism (PM), continuously carried out intensive preventive activities in the previous period. A large number of visits was conducted to police stations, remand departments, prisons, residential social care institutions, psychiatric hospitals, asylum centers, etc. The reason for prescribing cooperation between the Protector of Citizens and the Ombudsmen of the autonomous provinces and associations in performing the NPM duties lies in the fact that provincial Ombudsman of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and NGOs have been extremely active for many years now in protecting the rights of PDLs and in preventing torture, and that they hold a wealth of know-how in monitoring the institutions where PDLs are held. 50 51 52 53 54 55 “ Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia “, No. 98/2006 The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, Article 138 Paragraph 1 “ Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia “, No. 79/2005 and 54/2007 The Law on the Protector of Citizens, Article 1 Paragraph 1 and 2 and Article 2 Paragraph 1 http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/NHRI/Chart_Status_NIs.pdf The Law on the Protector of Citizens, Article 21 Paragraph 1 and 2 and Article 22