ANNUAL SPECIAL REPORT 2016 27 2. – WORKING MEETINGS, INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM ρρ In the context of the collaboration between the NPM and the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) a teleconference was held on 16 February 2016, during which issues regarding the operation, organisation, goal-setting and general problems of the NPM were discussed. Questions were answered, clarifications were requested and were followed up by an exchange of correspondence, and a synopsis of the NPMs' work over the previous year was presented. The SPT noted that it considers it important that the NPM’s competence be extended to inspect as many institutions and facilities as possible that have to do with de jure deprivation of liberty, by judicial or administrative decision, or with de facto deprivation of liberty, when persons residing in a specific place because of the circumstances and because of the state of their health or their particularly vulnerable positions are objectively deprived of their liberty, while the facility where they are detained is under the jurisdiction or supervision of the State. In this perspective the SPT appeared to attach particular significance to the places of detention of third-country nationals, while at the level of NPM operation it placed particular emphasison the effective planning of this special competence, so that it may be carried out as independently and distinctly as possible from the rest of the Authority’s competences. ρρ On 19 May 2015 a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights and the Greek Ombudsman, under its special competency as the National Preventive Mechanism against torture and ill-treatment. The signing of the agreement took place in the context of the conference “Prisons – Human Rights Transparency and accountability: the role of monitoring mechanisms”, which was held in the amphitheatre of the General Secretariat for Media and Communication and was the outcome of the close collaboration between the two parties, already since 2015.4 By clearly defining the distinct roles of the parties, so as to simultaneously establish the Authority’s independence and the exercising of control over the Administration, the agreement serves the dual goal of improving prison conditions and protecting prisoners’ rights. The UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture hailed this initiative as good practice and a positive development of the collaboration between the NPM and the Administration, aimed at its more effective operation. 4 https://www.synigoros.gr/?i=kdet.el.news.369782