100 13. International activities, international relations I could not attend either personally, or through my colleagues, the conference on the activities of National Preventive Mechanisms in connection with the refugee crisis, organized by the Serbian Ombudsman institution in Belgrade, on December 13-14, 2016. I sent my answers to the Serbian party’s questions in writing on December 08, 2016.227 13.3. NPM Observatory In 2016, Marcus Jaeger, a high-ranking official of the Council of Europe,228 approached me several times, first informally through the Head of the Department, then formally with a request to support the establishment and operation of NPM Observatory, a civil society organization registered in France. As far as I am concerned, I do share the view of the majority of European National Preventive Mechanisms, according to which the operation of NPM Observatory, in the absence of a clear mandate, may give cause for concern. For this reason, I respectfully declined the request. 227 228 See case file AJB-8886/2016. Head of Division, Human Rights Policy and Development Department.