BAPTISM BY FIRE FOR NEW UNIT DURING CLIMATE SUMMIT ment. Each participating state is obliged to establish one or more national authorities for the prevention of torture etc. In collaboration with the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims and the Institute for Human Rights, the OPCAT Unit undertook nine inspections in 2009 and 20 inspections in 2010. The inspections were carried out in detentions rooms for intoxicated persons, gaols, prisons, closed psychi­ atric wards, homes for the men­tally retarded and one boarding house run by the Prison Service. The inspections were targeted towards four areas: the relationship between inmates/patients/residents and employees, the use of isolation, medical matters and the extent to which force was used. In 2011, the OPCAT Unit expects to undertake 40 inspections. It soon became clear that an investigation of the situation on 12 December 2009 fell more naturally under the OPCAT Unit than the Ombudsman’s department for ordinary inspections. This was partly because several hundred of the detainees had immediately stated that they wanted the courts to test the legality of their detention by the police. The Ombudsman traditionally does not enter cases with special access to being tested by submission to a court, but the OPCAT mandate provides an opportunity to assess circumstances with a view to the future and to make recommendations for possible improvements to the authorities without taking any court judgments about legality into consideration. When detaining people, the police must respect human rights, irrespective of whether the detentions are legal or not. The information in the media and the citizens’ approaches to the Ombudsman about the events moreover suggested that the treatment of certain citizens might have endan­gered their health. This indicated that it might be necessary to include medical expertise in the investigation. THE OPCAT INVESTIGATION On Tuesday 15 December 2009, three days after the large demonstration, the OPCAT Unit wrote to the Copenhagen Police to request answers to a number of questions about the climate cages at Retortvej. On the same day, at around 2.30 p.m., the OPCAT Unit, with a doctor from the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, carried out an unannounced inspection of the climate cages, which had been erected in a disused production hall at Retortvej in Valby. There were no people in the cages during the inspection. Twelve cages were intended for eight persons and the remain- 51