33 Jonas Bering Liisberg Director General Over the course of the last 10 years, Parliament and the Government have through laws and resolutions given the Ombudsman a number of special tasks or ‘mandates’ to ensure that Denmark fulfils international obligations within the field of human rights. These special tasks have been added to the institution’s portfolio comparatively unnoticed. Two of these tasks are extremely central and extensive. One concerns the prevention of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the UN Convention against Torture, and the other is the protection of children’s rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In many ways, these tasks are natural extensions of the Ombudsman’s classic role as envisaged in the 1953 Constitution; that is, as a regulator, on behalf of Parliament, of the statutory administration and the treatment of the citizens by the executive power. However, the special tasks also add something to the Ombudsman’s work and classic role. The tasks help make the Ombudsman a player and a voice in new international contexts, for instance in relation to the UN committees which monitor that the member countries observe the conventions. Accordingly, the Ombudsman has in 2015 contributed for the first time, in writing and by personal appearance, to the periodic examination of the Danish Government by the UN Committee against Torture. A similar process is expected to take place in 2016-17 for the Convention on the Rights of the Child.