34 ANNUAL REPORT 2015 The national task of ensuring the efficient observance of the conventions is also exceptional in that the assignment from Parliament and the Government presupposes a very close collaboration with other independent Danish organisations and institutions. In that respect, the Ombudsman is no longer quite as much of a ‘lone wolf ’, for instance in connection with visits to prisons and institutions, but is part of permanent work relationships with organisations such as the Danish Institute for Human Rights, DIGNITY ‒ the Danish Institute Against Torture, and also the Danish National Council for Children and the Danish NGO Børns Vilkår with regard to cases involving children. THE OMBUDSMAN AND INTERNATIONAL LAW HAVE A LONG HISTORY TOGETHER Also before the Ombudsman was given these new tasks, international conventions formed part of the grounds of assessment for the Ombudsman’s control and monitoring. And they still do, independently of the special tasks. As a matter of fact, the Parliamentary Ombudsman was probably among the first appeal bodies in Denmark to incorporate international human rights law in the assessment of an administrative act’s legality. As early as 1982, in a case concerning the deportation of a Thai woman staying in Denmark with two under-age children, the Ombudsman pointed out that Article 8 of the European Human Rights Convention, which was not incorT H E OM B U DSM A N ’ S S P EC I A L I N T E R N AT I O N A L TA S KS 2007 Prevention of torture: The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment is from 1984. In 2002, the State Parties to the Convention against Torture agreed on an additional optional protocol (OPCAT, Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment). The protocol charges the State Parties with setting up a system of regular visits by independent bodies to places where people are being deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent torture etc. The individual State Parties must establish one or more bodies for the prevention of torture etc.; a so-called national preventive mechanism, NPM. Denmark ratified OPCAT in 2004, and in 2007 the Parliamentary Ombudsman was designated as Denmark’s national preventive mechanism. As presumed by Parliament, the organisation DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture (formerly the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Victims of Torture) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights contribute actively to the daily work of the national preventive mechanism.