20 2. Staff members participating in performing the tasks of the NPM On January 01, 2016, there were two psychologists and six lawyers in the Department’s staff. The Department’s gender composition is in compliance with the provisions of the Ombudsman Act. In 2016, my Office had to face two major challenges while performing the tasks of the NPM. First, due to the lack of applicants, we could not fill the two public servant posts reserved for physicians, as stipulated in Section 39/D, Subsection (4) of the Ombudsman Act, in 2016 either. My Office employed the physicians participating in NPM visits on an ad hoc basis, within the frameworks of civil law contracts. Second, the frequent changes in the ranks of public servants/lawyers in the Department made the performance of the NPM’s tasks more difficult. Of the six lawyers working at the Department on January 01, 2016, three left during the year. These job vacancies were filled via a public call for applications, in accordance with the Ombudsman Act’s provisions on gender composition.45 As a result of these vacancies, permanent on the posts of physicians and temporary on the posts of lawyers, the Department carried out its activities with seven public servants in average. The public servants working at the Department are experts with an outstanding knowledge in the field of the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty, many of them regularly publish, teach at universities, and deliver presentations at numerous professional and promotional events. 2.2. External experts In addition to my Office’s public servants, I may also authorize, either permanently or on an ad hoc basis, other experts to contribute to performing the tasks of the NPM.46 In this regard, I took into account the report published by the SPT on its visit to Sweden between March 10 and 14, 2008, in which the SPT, in connection with the operation of the ombudsman institution performing the tasks of the NPM, had pointed out as follows: prevention as defined by the OPCAT “necessitates the examination of rights and conditions from the very outset of deprivation of liberty until the moment of release. Such examination should take a multi-disciplinary approach and involve, for example, the medical profession, children and gender specialists and psychologists in addition to a strict legal focus.”47 45 46 47 “Guidelines on national preventive mechanism,” CAT/OP/12/5, Clause 16. See Section 39/D, Subsection (3) of the Ombudsman Act. See: Report on the Visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to The Maldives (2008 February 10), Clause 36 Available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/48edc3b92.html