MONITORING ACTIVITIES TOLERATED RESIDENCE STATUS – BEHIND THE CASE which stipulates that each country must appoint a supervisory body in order to monitor that the convention against torture is not violated. In Denmark, this task is carried out by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in close cooperation with the Danish Institute for Human Rights and DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture. DIGNITY is a private non-governmental organisation with the aim of fighting torture, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights is a public organisation with the aim of promoting human rights. In our opinion, the cooperation has strengthened the Ombudsman’s monitoring work because it has provided an opportunity to draw on expert knowledge in the two organisations. THE OMBUDSMAN’S TASK In his report, the Ombudsman wrote that ‘there are grounds for a more general discussion of the extent to which – based on the regards behind the legislation, among other things – it is in all respects necessary to maintain such an overall stressful and restrictive way of life as is currently the case’. It rarely happens that the Ombudsman in this way calls for a reconsideration of a measure that is partly stipulated by law. In addition to this, the case involves an issue which is much debated politically. But fundamentally, the Ombudsman only carried out the task as directed by the Ombudsman Act: to monitor the conditions of persons deprived of their liberty and to state his opinion on the matter. 69