Dear readers, the main goal of activities performed under the National Preventive Mechanism is to prevent torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which has been our mandate since 2012. One of the most valuable tools for achieving this goal is the Report on the Performance of Activities of the National Preventive Mechanism, and what you have before you, is a Report for the 2017. As in previous years, this Report was prepared on the basis of data collected during unannounced visits to prisons, police stations, police prison units and homes for the elderly and infirm, as well as complaints received and procedures launched at our own initiative. The Report contains an analysis of the human rights situation of persons deprived of liberty and those not allowed to leave a place under public supervision, as well as 33 recommendations to competent authorities for elimination of detected systemic problems. These recommendations pertain to strengthening human rights protection of persons within prison and police systems, persons with mental disorders, those in homes for the elderly and infirm as well as applicants for international protection and irregular migrants. Whereas positive news is that in 2017 no instances of treatment or conditions that would amount to torture have been detected, the negative is that there are examples that potentially amount to inhuman or degrading treatment as well as breach of constitutional and legal rights. Hence, as regards the prison system, it is still necessary to work on greater compliance of accommodation conditions with legal and international standards as well as to set clear and consistent criteria for depriving persons deprived of liberty of their other rights or of limiting such rights. Unfortunately, none of the recommendations provided in the Report for 2016 has been fully implemented at all levels of the prison system. For this reason, the majority of previously detected problems still continue to exist. Accommodation conditions are a major problem within the police system as well, with persons deprived of liberty often having no direct access to drinking water and not being able to freely use sanitary facilities. However, the bulk of complaints pertained to the use of force while exercising police powers. In addition, civil supervision over the police has still not been established, which is particularly worrying. Vague regulations, poor accommodation conditions and degrading practices are a common cause of rights violations of persons with mental disorders; in addition, we have also received complaints regarding work performed by court-appointed attorneys. Furthermore, for the first time since the launch of NPM, an unannounced visit (of the University Hospital Centre Zagreb) had to be abruptly terminated due to insistence on the part of responsible persons that a written request for data be delivered. After we informed them about the issue, the Ministry of Health sent a letter to health care institutions as a reminder of the powers exercised under NPM.