EXAMPLES OF NPMs’ NATIONAL PUBLIC AWARENESS ACTIVITIES ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPCAT’s TENTH ANNIVERSARY (2016) Torture in Costa Rica? Myths and Realities was a high-level forum held in collaboration with the NPM in June 2016 in Costa Rica. The Forum generated an important discussion addressing the subject of torture and ill-treatment in Costa Rica. The Croatian NPM, in collaboration with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM), hosted a conference within the framework of the South-East Europe NPM Network to discuss the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), the follow-up of NPM recommendations, and the role of monitoring bodies in the “refugee crisis” (2930 November 2016). The National Agency for the Prevention of Torture in Germany issued a press release on 22 June 2016, and participated in the Association for Prevention of Torture’s campaign highlighting the positive changes that the OPCAT and the work of NPMs have achieved. The National Agency organized an international workshop on the significance and development of the OPCAT and the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in relation to persons with psychosocial disabilities (2 December 2016, Berlin). In Norway the NPM participated in a human rights seminar on the legal safeguards and guarantees in psychiatric health care (19 October 2016, Oslo) to help create a new and positive dynamic relating to the consideration of this subject-area in Norway. In Serbia the NPM held a press conference on “UN OPCAT: 10 years of prevention of torture and ill-treatment” (27 October 2016). The press conference highlighted the importance of the OPCAT, the SPT and NPMs in the prevention and eradication of torture, and the need to strengthen the organizational, functional and financial independence of the Serbian NPM and the continued participation of civil society and external experts in its work. In Tunisia, l’Organisation contre la torture en Tunisie (OCTT) placed a tent in Habib Bourguiba Avenue, in Tunis, to directly engage with people and distributed documents relating to the prevention of torture and the OPCAT. Arabic radio stations broadcasted information on the OPCAT. ÎÎTECHNICAL ASSISTANCE – THE OPCAT SPECIAL FUND Requesting technical assistance The States parties to the Optional Protocol can seek technical assistance from OHCHR for establishing or strengthening their NPMs. They can request assistance through OHCHR field presences or the OHCHR Treaty Body Capacity Building Programme,59 or submit a proposal for a grant to the Special Fund of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (“OPCAT Special Fund”). The OPCAT Special Fund was established pursuant to article 26 of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture in 2011. The Special Fund supports projects implementing recommendations of the SPT contained in the SPT public visit reports, which focus on the establishment or strengthening of NPMs. 59 For questions relating to the Fund, contact should be made with opcatfund@ohchr.org. 34 I PREVENTING TORTURE: THE ROLE OF NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISMS – A PRACTICAL GUIDE