They thus learned about individual coercive measures, various (international) standards or provisions used for different types of equipment and the importance of accurately recording the use of each type of coercive measure. Special attention was dedicated to the supervision of the use of coercive measures (including the provisions of the Istanbul Protocol) as it is particularly important that supervisors recognise and distinguish between weapons and instruments of restraint which inherently denote abuse, and those whose use may be legitimate in certain circumstances, but may nevertheless be misused easily. To this end, the course providers provided a Slovenian translation of the practical guide of the Omega Research Foundation regarding the supervision of weapons and instruments of restraint and binding at places of detention, which will be of use to the competent bodies when supervising this field in the future. Deputy Ombudsman Ivan Šelih and Ombudsman’s adviser Ana Polutnik attended the second meeting of the SEE NPM Network, which was held between 2 and 3 October 2019 in Skopje in North Macedonia. The purpose of the meeting was to present and exchange experiences when discussing children and adolescents in institutions or in circumstances in which their personal freedom is restricted. This meeting of the representatives of the SEE NPM Network was the first to focus on the regulation of the situation and special needs of children and adolescents in institutions or in circumstances in which they have been deprived of their personal liberty. 19 See: https://www.varuh-rs.si/en/about-us/organisational-units-and-hro-council/ ombudsman-as-a-nmp/ 19 1.4 REALISATION OF NPM RECOMMENDATIONS 19 In 2019, we remained active in the South-East Europe (SEE) NPM Network the purpose of which is to establish better cooperation, exchange experience and implement numerous joint activities to improve the efficiency of performing the duties and powers of the NPM in South East Europe arising from the Optional Protocol. Between 11 and 12 June 2019, Deputy Ombudsman Ivan Šelih attended the first meeting of the SEE NPM Network in 2019 in Skopje in North Macedonia, organised by the Human Rights Ombudsman of North Macedonia within the framework of their presidency of the network and with the assistance of the OSCE. The meeting was intended to exchange experiences when forming policies to prevent retaliation as per Article 21 of the Optional Protocol stating that no authority or official shall order, apply, permit or tolerate any sanction against any person or organisation for having communicated to the national preventive mechanism any information, whether true or false, and no such person or organisation shall be otherwise prejudiced in any way. After presentations by all members of the network concerning procedures and work methods on the prevention of retaliation, the meeting in Skopje concluded with concrete findings and recommendations, i.e.: NPMs must be aware that retaliation and intimidation can occur in all “places of detention”. As per the principle of “not prejudiced”, it must be ensured that no one is subject to punitive measures for carrying out NPM authorisations. The activities to enhance awareness will be of help when establishing bases of trust that will encourage everyone to speak freely with NPM members and provide information. In this way, they will be certain that the principle of confidentiality will not be violated. As per the SPT policy on retaliation, each NPM will form their own procedures and work methods to prevent, and suitably respond to, retaliation.