83 International cooperation The NPM gives a talk to representatives of the Vera Institute of Justice from New York. The delegation visited Norway to learn about solitary confinement in Norwegian prisons. During the meeting, the delegation gained insight into the NPM’s methods and execution of visits, findings and recommendations from Norwegian prisons, and how the Parliamentary Ombudsman follows up the recommendations through its work with the authorities and the Correctional Service. The same applied to a delegation of participants from Washington State and Louisiana, organised by the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, which works to reduce the use of solitary confinement in the US prison sector. We also received a visit from Professor Steve Chanenson of the Villanova University in Pennsylvania. He is part of a research team that works with the Directorate of the Norwegian Correctional Service and Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. In October, the NPM attended the 30th anniversary of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT). The anniversary was hosted by the Association for the prevention of torture (Association pour la prévention de la torture (APT)), the Council of Europe and the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). The programme included a series of seminars, debates and other events, where the European preventive mechanisms exchanged experiences between them and with other relevant civil society organisations on the prevention of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment in a European context. Member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), Victor Zaharia, reads the Special Report to the Storting on Solitary Confinement and Lack of Human Contact in Norwegian Prisons with interest. APT is an important resource for NPM’s ­throughout the world and helps to ensure international ­knowledge transfer on preventing torture, i­nhuman or degrading treatment. In 2019, the NPM ­participated in APT’s sounding board for the development of a toolkit for NPMs.