1.4 1.4 REALISATION OF NPM RECOMMENDATIONS REALISATION OF NPM RECOMMENDATIONS The implementation of NPM recommendations is a commitment of the State Party to the Optional Protocol. According to Article 22 of the Optional Protocol, the competent authorities of the State Party must address recommendations of the NPM and establish a dialogue with it regarding possible measures to realise the recommendations. All recommendations and responses from competent authorities regarding the NPM visits in 2019 are published in special tables on the Ombudsman’s website 11 according to the institutions visited. Following the example and good experience of some of the national preventive mechanisms, especially the Austrian one, we decided in 2018 to establish special NPM recommendation overview tables. When preparing the tables, we also took into account our own experience and needs. Key words which would be used to label a particular recommendation were first determined. Twelve labels were determined: (1) general, (2) living conditions, (3) treatment, forms of work, (4) health care, (5) activities, (6) staff, (7) contact with the outside world, (8) food, (9) treatment of unwanted behaviour, violation of the rules for living, (10) records, documentation, (10) legal protection, complaint channels, (11) relocation, discharge, (12) other. Different categories in the table itself were then formed, so that it is immediately clear for each recommendation during which visit it was given, related to which location of deprivation of liberty, at which location, which type of visit it was, which non-governmental organisation cooperated, and whether an expert also attended the visit. The full recommendation is listed in the table, followed by a brief explanation of the recommendation if necessary; the aforementioned key word is used for a clarification of the type of a recommendation (systemic, general, or targeted); response to the recommendation and the comment on the response if necessary; findings from the control visit, and the response to these findings. Good practice and commendations provided during our work are also entered into the table. Based on the response received to the recommendations (visited institutions or the superior authority), we determine whether the visited institution and/or superior ministry accepted and implemented the NPM recommendations or not. The realisation of our recommendations is regularly verified during our subsequent visits to the institutions in question and, if necessary, by way of control visits. Recommendations made by the NPM after visits in 2019 are thus displayed in the form of tables by individual locations of places of deprivation of liberty on the Om12 budsman’s website. Whereby, it needs to be taken into account that this is the situation as of January 2020 (when drafting this report, certain reports about visits were still being prepared, and we have not yet received response reports to some of them, which is why the number of the recommendations in the table is not final, includ- ing the data on the implementation of individual recommendations (for some of them, only the response from the visited institution has been observed, and 13 not from the competent ministry for whose response we are still waiting)). 11, 12 14 See: https://www.varuh-rs.si/en/about-us/organisational-units-and-hro-council/ ombudsman-as-a-nmp/ THE REPORT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA ON IMPLEMENTING THE TASKS OF THE NPM