-52 into account the specific circumstances in the member states. It should, in fact, be the major task of NPMs to define and address vulnerability in their jurisdiction on the basis of the specific circumstances. Moreover, it may be counterproductive to focus at the national level on those vulnerable groups on which the international standards focus too, disregarding the need to address the situation of other, more vulnerable groups. This is reflected in the insufficient attention to LGBTIQ and Roma prisoners in the reports of even those NPMs who have published on vulnerable groups. 3.2. Monitoring the rights of persons and groups in a situation of vulnerability in prisons: importance and challenges Monitoring the rights of prisoners in a situation of vulnerability has both general and specific importance for the EU member states and their NPMs. The general importance is obvious – the NPMs are national bodies tasked with prevention and eradication of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment. In some member states they are tasked also with prevention of other human rights violations. To fulfil these tasks, NPMs have to firstly target with their monitoring activities groups and situations where human rights violations are prevalent, serious and difficult to uncover and to eradicate. Prisoners in a situation of vulnerability are victims of a wide range of human rights violations, including both their civil and political, as well as their economic, social and cultural rights. Prisons and other places of detention are not designed to accommodate vulnerability. The life in these institutions exposes different categories of detainees to different violations – some become victims of physical and sexual abuse, others to extreme forms of restrictions of their mobility, still others to a dangerous lack of needed medical care. The specific importance of the monitoring of the rights of prisoners in a situation of vulnerability relates to police and judicial cooperation between EU member states. As provided in a number of EU documents,91 the latter is based on mutual trust in their criminal justice systems. The risk for exposure of prisoners to serious human rights violations would certainly undermine this trust and block cooperation. Member states are responsible for exposing persons in their jurisdictions to such violations 91. See above at 2.1.