22 the last three years, the report on the visit to the Closed Psychiatric Ward of the Psychiatric and Addiction Treatment Center (Merényi Gusztáv Hospital premises) of the Unified Szent István and Szent László Hospital and Outpatient Care Clinic 75 made the biggest impact. On behalf of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the OPCAT-NPM Department, and himself, he thanked the CCB for their cooperation, expressing his hope that most of them would keep on working together with the NPM in the coming three years as well. The Head of the Department mentioned that the NPM had published the call for application for the CCB on October 19, 2017. The deadline for submitting the applications was November 20, 2017. He informed the participants that, following the previous meeting of the CCB, the NPM had been visited by the staff members of the Central European Regional Representation of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The delegation of the Committee against Torture of the Council of Europe (CPT) and staff members of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights came to learn about the activities of our Office and the NPM. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights assured the representatives of all three organizations of our readiness to cooperate. The Commissioner also spoke about the CCB’s activities to all three organizations, pointing out that he intended to re-convene the CCB. He stated that a psychologist would join the Department in early December. Thus the number of public servants permanently authorized to perform tasks related to the NPM would increase from eight to nine. In connection with the CCB’s operation, he noted that the early period of its activities focused on the exchange and discussion of methodological experiences. The consultations between the NPM and the CCB’s members had been fruitful all along. Neither the body nor its members are legally authorized to evaluate reports that are not approved yet by the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. The locations recommended by the members of the CCB were included in 2018 annual schedule of visits. In 2017, up to the meeting’s date, the NPM had visited seven places of detention, two of them within the frameworks of a follow-up inspection; eight reports were being drafted by the Department, and one report was under legal review. Two staff members of the Office had visited the transit zones in Röszke and Tompa in order to gather information. Within the frameworks of the dialog with authorities, the NPM had been conducting negotiations with the Ministry of Human Capacities in connection with the recommendations made in the report on the follow-up visit76 to the Juvenile Penitentiary Institution in Tököl. During the negotiations, the NPM stuck to the Mandela Rules which stipulate that detainees shall be educated. Following the visit to Bóly, both the supervisory authority and the institution accepted every recommendation made by the NPM. In connection with the restrictive measures described in the report on Bóly, the MoHC was planning to convene a working group as there was some controversy between the relevant provisions of the Healthcare Act and the Social Act. The NPM received a letter from Malcolm Evans, country rapporteur of the SPT, and distributed its copies among the participants. Malcolm Evans indicated that the NPM’s comprehensive annual report had “failed to provide information on some organizational questions.”77 In the response sent to Malcolm Evans, the NPM pointed out that the relevant information can be found in Chapters 2.1 and 2.2 of the comprehensive report, and requested guidance as regards additional information on “some organizational questions” missing from the 2016 comprehensive report, required by the SPT.78 Report № AJB-410/2015 Report № AJB-685/2017 77 The letter by Malcolm Evans, dated October 20, 2016, is registered in my Office under file number AJB-4415-10/2017 78 My response, dated November 9, 2017, is registered in my Office under file number AJB-4415-12/2017 75 76

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