Implementation of Duties and Powers of the National Preventive Mechanism in 2013 The visits undertaken by the NPM in 2013 included 12 Ombudsman’s officials (the Ombudsman herself included) and 11 various representatives of the NGOs under the contract, thereof two NP representatives, two PIC representatives, four Primus representatives one RKS representative and two ZDUS representatives. Primus and its members took part in 27 visits, ZDUS in 6, PIC in 12, RKS in two and NP in 2 visits. In 2013, 6 out of 48 visits were undertaken without the representatives of the NGOs under contract. Article 18 (2) of the Optional Protocol stipulates that the States Parties shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the experts of the national preventive mechanism have the required capabilities and professional knowledge. Pursuant to this requirement, the NPM should ensure that its staff has the diversity of background, capabilities and professional knowledge necessary to enable it to properly fulfil its NPM mandate. This should include, inter alia, relevant legal and health-care expertise, as explicitly underlined by Paragraph 20 of the aforementioned Guidelines on national preventive mechanisms of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Moreover, the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) recommends that the NPM should include experts with various skills and capabilities (lawyers, doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists, people with professional background in the police, prison administration and psychiatric institutions, representatives of the civil society, i.e. NGOs, institutes, etc.), people with previous experience in undertaking visits to prisons and in working with vulnerable groups (migrants, women, minors, etc.), anthropologists and social workers. In its NPM capacity, the Ombudsman therefore employs experts with the widest possible range of the recommended specialist skills. Some officials who had been working for the Ombudsman prior to the assumption of obligations under the NPM mandate were included by the Ombudsman in the NPM team, i.e. a psychologist, an expert in the field of police work, a few lawyers, a former judge and an anthropologist. Because the selected NGOs were not able to ensure services of some other suitable experts and the Ombudsman’s expert team does, for example, not have a person with appropriate skills in the field of health-care, this lack of experts had to be made up for by the NPM itself. At the beginning of 2013, the NPM therefore published, on its website and in the bulletin of the Medical Chamber of Slovenia (ISIS), a public tender for the inclusion in the list of medical specialists who would professionally assist the Ombudsman in establishing, clarifying or assessing certain facts and/or during its visits to the places where persons are deprived of their liberty, support it with the necessary professional skills, which the Ombudsman lacks. The NPM received two applications for cooperation, one from Associate Professor, Dr Peter Pregelj, M.D., specialist in psychiatry, and one from Assistant Professor, Dr Milan Popovič, M.D., specialist in general surgery. Because both applications were compliant with the tender requirements, the NPM included both applicants in the list of medical specialists and signed a cooperation contract with them. Any expert selected from the list by the Ombudsman with regard to the type and place of a particular visit performs his duties according to the Ombudsman’s order and instructions and in cooperation with its professional associates. These duties include participation in the planned visit, and submission of written answers to the questions of the Ombudsman in its NPM capacity and findings, especially regarding the adequacy of the health care and treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. A medical specialist participated in 6 out of 48 visits undertaken in 2013. For the following years, an increased inclusion of both specialists in visits is being envisaged, while taking into account the available financial resources. It should nevertheless be observed that the participation of a medical specialist in the NPM’s visits is absolutely necessary, as in absence thereof, it is difficult to assess, from the medical aspect, the adequacy of the health care and treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. The selected NGOs continued to fulfil the mandate and to exercise the powers of the NPM with their own personnel. They are trained to cover individual areas of supervision and are part of a team which, for each visit, is determined by the Ombudsman to undertake the visit at the place of the deprivation of liberty and to check the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty. The time and place of the visit, and the number of members of the team involved in visiting a particular place of inspection are specified by the Ombudsman, taking into consideration the programme of the visits adopted for this purpose by the Ombudsman in cooperation with the selected organizations. If necessary, other circumstances that might require an immediate visit are also taken into account. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DUTIES AND POWERS OF THE NPM IN 2013 NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM UNDER THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE UN CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT 15