CAT/OP/ROU/1/Add.1 By including in paragraph (3) of Art. 1 of the Government Ordinance No. 80/2001, with the subsequent amendments and supplements, the People's Advocate Institution together with the other public institutions stipulated by the Constitution, whose organization and functioning are established by organic law, is observed the necessity of the institutions to have decision-making autonomy in relation to their duties. 4. The composition of the NPM visiting team, referring to the nomination of the NGO representative by the People's Advocate; Involving civil society in NPM visits and drafting reports; NPM cooperation with other prevention mechanisms Art. 294 para. (4) provides that representatives of non-governmental organizations active in the field of human rights protection, selected on the basis of their work, by the People's Advocate, will participate in the torture prevention activity. Based on the Collaboration Protocols concluded with NGOs, each NGO designates its representatives to participate in the monitoring of places of detention. Therefore, the People's Advocate selects non-governmental organizations that participate in the activity of the Field on Prevention of Torture in places of detention, selected on the basis of their work by the People's Advocate, but it does not designate the NGO that actually participates in the visits. The selection of the NGO attending the visit is done exclusively by the NPM jurist who coordinates the visit, depending on the specificity of the visit and the availability of the NGO representative to participate in the visit. As for the collaboration with NGOs, in 2016, additional Protocols to existing Protocols were concluded for continuing the collaboration, and new Collaboration Protocols were concluded, so that currently the Field on Prevention of Torture in places of detention collaborates with 35 NGOs, as follows: - at the level of Bucharest Zonal Centre (11 NGOs) at the level of Alba Zonal Centre (9 NGOs) at the level of Bacău Zonal Centre (9 NGOs) at the level of Craiova Zonal Centre (6 NGOs) As a result, representatives of non-governmental organizations participate both in the visits of the Field on prevention of torture in places of detention and in the drafting of visiting reports. We mention that through Law No. 8 of 18 January 2016 on the establishment of the mechanisms provided by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities a Monitoring Council was established to implement the Convention in order to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the Convention. Given that the goal of the People's Advocate Institution is to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals, including the rights of people with disabilities, we are open to cooperation with the Monitoring Council. 5. With regard to solving the petitions by the People's Advocate, given the preventive role of the NPM mandate under OPCAT, as well as to drafting a NPM Report, separate from the Annual Report of the People's Advocate In 2016, the first steps were taken on the legislative proposal for amending and completing the Law No. 35/1997 on the organization and functioning of the 57