47. 27 October The Human Rights Ombudsman, Vlasta Nussdorfer, her deputies, Ivan Šelih and 2017 Dr Kornelija Marzel, and her advisers, mag. Uroš Kovačič, Robert Gačnik and Liana Kalčina, welcomed the Director General of the Prison Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Jože Podržaj, and his associates Lucija Božikov and Janja Pahor Mohorič to a working visit. The discussions focused on issues concerning prisoners in the Republic of Slovenia, recent events in Ljubljana and Dob pri Mirni Prisons, the implementation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations regarding the initiatives posed by remand and sentenced prisoners, and the recommendations by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the Strategy of the Prison Administration, the placement and transfer of prisoners to less strict regimes, and staffing problems with judicial police officers. 48. 9 November The Ombudsman’s adviser, mag. Jure Markič, attended a meeting at the Ministry 2017 of Health focusing on the possibilities of regulating the rights of people with dementia and other people in social care institutions and psychiatric hospitals where freedom of movement must be restricted exclusively for health reasons. 49. 13–15 The Deputy Ombudsman, Ivan Šelih, travelled to Prague, in the Czech Republic, November to attend a consultation of European National Preventive Mechanisms (NPM) 2017 on norm-making and skills management (Brainstorming Meeting on the Normmaking Powers and Skills Management of NPMs). The participants established that when inspecting the observance of existing rules and standards, NPMs also explain and through their recommendations even create such rules and standards, even though this is not their principle role. The majority of the existing rules or standards are not always clear and do not cover all aspects of NPM activity. This enables NPMs to provide their interpretation of the rules or standards and to fill the gaps at the national and supranational level (e.g. draft standards of the SEE NPM Network for social care institutions). The meeting was organised in the context of the European NPM Forum, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe. In addition to representatives from the Council of Europe and NPM Obs, the consultation was also attended by NPMs from Albania, Armenia, Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Macedonia, and the United Kingdom. 50. 16 November The Deputy Ombudsman, Ivan Šelih, and the Ombudsman’s adviser, mag. Jure 2017 Markič, attended an expanded session of the Working Group on dementia at the premises of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (Ministry). A few years ago, the Ministry adopted Guidelines for working with people with dementia in the field of institutional care. The purpose of the Guidelines is to assist retirement homes in ensuring comparable treatment of people with dementia. The Ministry has established that, with the development of the concepts of working with people with dementia, by monitoring questions and dilemmas concerning retirement homes in their provision of care, and on the basis of the findings of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia and the Inspection for Social Affairs, the need arises to update these Guidelines every few years. The Ombudsman is pleased to establish that the foreseen amendments and annexations of the Guidelines are in line with the office’s recommendation or the recommendations of the National Preventive Mechanism, expressed in the reports on visiting individual retirement homes. These are mainly questions concerning the limitation of freedom of movement outside secure departments, admission to the secure department, the use of special and other precautionary measures, the use of therapy when required, and other issues mainly associated with the implementation of the Mental Health Act. In agreement with the Association of Social Institutions, the Ministry is planning to present the proposals for the amendments at the meeting of directors of retirement homes. 34 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2017 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT