6 As of the first days of its existence the NPM Department began active monitoring visits to different parts of Ukraine, with development of the methodology and practicalities for monitoring of each type of custodial settings. Shortly after the passage of the above described legislative changes the monitoring missions integrated NGO activists. I want to express my gratitude to Denys Kobzin and Andriy Chernousov for their large contribution into the establishment of NPM in Ukraine. Back in 2008, at the First Eastern European Conference of national preventive mechanisms these two persons inspired me with the idea to initiate such mechanism. Since then this area has been a principal concern in my work. When serving at the Ministry of Justice I coordinated the drafting of the Law “On the National Committee Against Torture” and later, upon election to the position of the Ombudsman, I started to implement the national preventive mechanism, as one of my key priorities. I want to thank the UN Office in Ukraine, Office of the Council of Europe in Ukraine, OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine and the International Renaissance Foundation for their administrative, methodological and technical support for implementation of the national preventive mechanism in 2012. I also express my gratitude to the non-governmental organizations that enthusiastically supported this process – the Association of Independent Monitors, Association of Ukrainian Monitors on Lawenforcement, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, Kharkiv Institute for Social Research, Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Center of Human Rights Information and M’ART public organization. Valeriya Lutkovska, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights