57 National Dialogue Court decision regarding body searches In July 2020, Gulating Court of Appeal ruled that Bergen Prison had subjected an inmate remanded in custody to degrading treatment in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights article 3. The judgement was unanimous. Services, Bent Høie, stressed that community and human contact are crucial elements to reduce the need for health assistance. The Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs also put ­questions to the directors of the Directorate of Health, Bjørn Guldvog, and the Norwegian ­Correctional Service, Lise Sannerud. A number of organisations participated during the hearing and these confirmed the report’s serious findings (see box on page 56). Following a judgement at Gulating Court of Appeal from July 2020 (see fact box), the Ombudsman addressed the practice of body searches with the Norwegian Correctional Service. In the period that followed, the Ombudsman received information that several prisons were still carrying out routine body searches in a degrading manner. The Parliamentary Ombudsman therefore found it necessary to remind key authorities of their responsibility to ensure that human rights violations cease immediately. The inmate was subjected to body searches a number of times, fully naked while required to adopt a deep squatting position, so that the genitals could be examined visually. According to the judge­ ment, the body searches were conducted routinely without carrying out individual risk and proportionality assessments. Findings from the Ombudsman's prison visits over several years indicate that similar body search practices are wide­ spread in Norwegian prisons and affect a large number of inmates. After visits to high security prisons, the Ombudsman’s NPM has several times criticised the fact that body searches requiring inmates to be fully naked are routinely conducted without individual risk assessments. The Ombuds­ man has recommended that fully naked body searches should take place in stages, so that the inmate is given upper body clothing before clothing on the lower body is removed, to conduct the body search in the least intrusive manner possible.