5.2. The conduct of the inspections of the Children’s Home in the frameworks of another, unscheduled and unannounced visit. One of the children claimed that, as far as he could remember, during the previous visit they had had to leave the premises because of a bomb threat. According to the interviewed children, many of them had not even seen the space exhibition, they had spent the time on a playground.73 The members of the visiting delegation made written records of the interviews conducted with both the personnel of the place of detention and the persons deprived of their liberty. All the interviewees, should they be detainees, staff members or visitors, were informed that “no one shall suffer any disadvantage for providing information” to the NPM.74 5.2.4. Document inspection Pursuant to Section 39/B, Subsection (3), Paragraph b) of the Ombudsman Act, the NPM “may inspect without any restriction all documents concerning the number and geographical location of places of detention, the number of persons deprived of their liberty who are held there, on the treatment of these persons and on the conditions of their detention, and make extracts from or copies of these documents.” At the beginning of the visit, the head of the visiting delegation hands over the list of those documents that either he/she or any member of the delegation would like to inspect or request a copy thereof. Should the need arise during the visit to inspect further documents and make copies or extract thereof, the members of the visiting delegation shall notify the competent staff member of the place of detention of their request. In the absence of prior notice, the staff of the places of detention cannot prepare for the visit; it is not unusual that they cannot immediately present some of the requested documents, or they cannot have the requested documentation copied by the end of the inspection. Should it be the case, they have to present the missing documents to the NPM within the deadline, not shorter than fifteen days, set by the head of the visiting delegation.75 73 74 75 75 See Report AJB-1603/2016. See Section 39/E of the Ombudsman Act. Pursuant to Section 21, Subsection (1), Paragraph a) of the Ombudsman Act, “in the course of his or her inquiries the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights may request data and information from the authority subject to inquiry on the proceedings it has conducted or failed to conduct, and may request copies of the relevant documents.” In accordance with Section 21, Subsection (2) of the Ombudsman Act, “the request of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights pursuant to points a) and b) of subsection (1) shall be complied with within the time-limit set by the Commissioner. The time-limit may not be shorter than 15 days.” 37

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