12 materials were forwarded to the authorized bodies for verification. In some cases, the results of special visits led to the disciplinary liability of employees of closed institutions. Thus, according to the results of the special visit of the ETS-164/4 Institution of the Department of the Penitentiary System for the North-Kazakhstan oblast, the investigator of the Petropavlovsk police department and the head of the Office of the Public Prosecutor's Office of the North-Kazakhstan region were disciplined for the weakening of supervision in the line of execution of punishment. In accordance with national legislation, interference in the activities of NPMs is prohibited. Nonetheless, in 2017, the heads of the NPM groups in West Kazakhstan, Kostanay and the Almaty region faced attempts to prevent their work by the employees of the institutions. This was connected with the latter’s lack of knowledge about the norms of the national legislation of the CONSOLIDATED REPORT Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of prevention of torture. It should be noted that the obstruction of the activities of members of the NPM by law enforcement officers entails liability for violating the Code of administrative offences of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Commissioner for human rights and his / her institution are implementing training projects aimed at enhancing the professional skills and knowledge of NPM members as a human rights mechanism. The activities of the National Centre for Human Rights in Kazakhstan are carried out in close cooperation with such international organizations as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) Regional Office for Central Asia (ROCA), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kazakhstan, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the European Union, the OSCE Centre in Astana, the PRI office in Central Asia, as well as Kazakhstan's nongovernmental organizations.