Preventive monitoring and control Protection & promotion of human rights The new competences of the AOB With the Act on the Implementation of the OPCAT (OPCAT Durchfüh- rungsgesetz) dated 10 January 2012, Federal Law Gazette (BGBl.) I No. 1/2012, the AOB‘s competence under constitutional law has undergone its greatest expansion since its establishment in 1977. Three new competences of the AOB The title of the law describes only part of the new competences. Up to now, as a parliamentary ombudsman institution, the AOB was primarily occupied with ex-post control of public administration. Since 1 July 2012, as National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), the AOB’s mandate under the UN Optional Protocol of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 18 December 2002 (OPCAT) includes preventive monitoring and control of all public and private institutions and facilities where persons are or can be detained. This duty has been extended to include the monitoring and control of institutions and facilities as well as programmes for persons with disabilities in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006. The third new area of competence covers the in itinere and observatory monitoring of the conduct of the agencies empowered by the State to exercise administrative power and compulsion. It is the duty of the AOB to charge the Commissions it has established with the actual execution of these tasks. A Human Rights Advisory Council has been established as a purely advisory body. The AOB was included in the legislative process from the very beginning and the individual provisions have been coordinated with it. In Law discussed with NGOs accordance with international requirements, the drafts prepared by the Legal and Constitutional Service of the Federal Chancellery were also discussed with representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which were invited to comment on them prior to deliberations in Parliament. 33