44 Cooperation with the United Nations Cooperation with the CPT In late 2018, as a consequence of the publication of the SPT report, it Dr. Gergely Fliegauf, Head of the OPCAT Department attend- became possible for the NPM to apply for the fund specified in Article ed the plenary sessions of the CPT on 4–8 March, 1–5 July and 26 of OPCAT. On 15 February 2019, after extensive consultations with 4–8 November 2019; he participated in the delegation meeting held the member organisations of the Civil Consultative Body and the heads between 30 January and 1 February 2019 on the country visits of the of the specialist fields of the Office, the NPM submitted its application Committee to Georgia and the Russian Federation; he took part in to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human the country visit to Denmark between 2–12 April 2019, and attended Rights, and simultaneously informed the Permanent Mission of the delegation meeting of this visit on 23–24 September 2019. Hungary to the United Nations about the application. The SPT admitted From 4 to 6 November 2019, the Deputy Head of the OPCAT NPM the application on 25 February 2019. The title of the application was Department attended the high-level festive conference organised on “Interview Techniques, South-East Europe OPCAT NPM Workshop the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the CPT and its accompanying 2020 – Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights”. The NPM events and meetings in Strasbourg. The subject of the conference Office’s own contribution to the application was 5,519 USD, while the of 4 November 2019 was the implementation of safeguards in the first amount of grant applied for was 10,249 USD. The four key focuses of the hours of police custody. The Deputy Head of Department gave a detailed workshop are as follows: 1. Interviewing with children, 2. Interviewing presentation about the working methods used by the Hungarian NPM. with people living with psycho-social disabilities, 3. Interviewing On the consultation organised by the Association for the Prevention with foreigners and/or members of national or ethnic minorities, 4. of Torture (APT, Switzerland) on 5 November 2019, she noted that the Interviewing with LGBTQ people. At the end of December 2019, the SPT NPM seeks to exercise its powers as widely as possible. In line with the published on its website that the grant was awarded to the NPM. expectations of the SPT, the NPM regularly visits non-traditional places Cooperation with the SEE of detention (centres for the elderly, children’s homes, places of house On 11–12 June 2019, the experts of the OPCAT NPM Department participated in the SEE conference (NPM Policy on Reprisals), which arrest, psychiatric institutions, etc.) as well. Other international activities was organised in Skopje, North Macedonia. The participants of On 12–13 February 2019, the Head of OPCAT NPM Department the conference shared practices used in case of reprisals already and his colleague attended a workshop organised in Budapest with- experienced by the NPMs in the course of their operation, the pos- in the framework of the project titled “Strengthening the rights of sible forms of reprisal, as well as the possible ways of the effective persons suspected or accused in criminal proceedings – the role of management thereof. National Human Rights Institutions” led by the Ludwig Boltzmann On 2–3 October 2019, again in Skopje, the SEE held its second annual Institute of Human Rights (LBI, Austria) in cooperation with the conference. This conference was attended by the Head of the OPCAT Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Department. The theme of the conference was the detention of chil- Rights (Poland) and the Peace Institute (Slovenia). In the first phase dren. The participants of the conference issued a statement according of the project, interviews were conducted with the participation of to which the primary objective of the NPMs belonging to the Network human rights institutions (NHRIs, NPMs) from 15 states and oth- is to formulate recommendations which enforce the best interests er experts. Furthermore, an online survey was completed on the of children through child-friendly justice. The representative of the enforcement of the rights of suspected or accused persons, and the Hungarian NPM noted that thanks to the OPCAT special fund, the effective assurance thereof. On 24 October 2019, an expert of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights would organise – OPCAT NPM Department participated in the closing conference of presumably – a conference for the Member States of the SEE in 2020. the project titled “Developing Guidance for NHRIs to Strengthen Procedural Safeguards”. 2.5. ANALYSIS OF MEDIA PRESENCE I n autumn 2019, the six-year mandate of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights and that of his Deputy Commissioner respon- sible for the protection of the rights of nationalities living in Hungary expired. Following the decision of the National Assembly, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights Dr. László Székely was replaced by Dr. Ákos Kozma in September, while Deputy Commissioner Dr. Elisabeth Sándor-Szalay was re-elected in November. As the statistics on Participants of the SEE conference held in October 2019 topics demonstrate, besides the reports and statements issued by the Commissioner and his Deputies, the selection and transition process also attracted significant media attention. REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMISSIONER FOR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF HUNGARY AND HIS DEPUTIES – 2019