20 Persons “1. Oktobar” in Stari Lec, and to the Special Hospital for Mental Diseases “Dr. Slavoljub Bakalović” in Vršac. 4.5. Participation of the civil sector in the NPM activities With the aim of performing NPM activities, in course of 2015, the Protector of Citizens continued its cooperation with the non-governmental organisations in line with the Agreement on the Amendments to the Agreement of Cooperation with the Associations, specifically with: Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (area of application of the police authorities and treatment of the asylum seeker), Lawyer’s Committee for Human Rights (detention), Helsinki Committee for Human Rights (enforcement of criminal sanctions), International Aid Networks (right of persons with mental disorders in detention), Mental Disability Rights Initiative (rights of persons with disabilities within the social protection institutions), Victimology Society of Serbia (rights of women in the prison system), Centre for Human Rights in Niš (rights of persons with disabilities in the prison system), Dialogue and Committee for Human Rights in Valjevo (minors in the prison system). In the course of the reporting period and in line with the NPM Methodology, representatives of the associations the Agreement on Cooperation in performing NPM Actives was signed with actively participated in visits to the detention institutions, presentation of reports and recommendations. With the support provided by the Group 484, NPM representatives took part in several training sessions in the following areas: asylum, migration, discrimination and international human rights. One NPM representative deliver a speech in the course of the conference “Life in community – fundamental human right“, organized by the association Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Besides the focus on the stay within the institutions, treatment, working engagement of patients, insufficient number of medical staff, stigmatization of psychiatric patients outside psychiatric hospitals and application of measures for restraint of patients, the NPM representative stressed as the underlying problem the perennial (sometimes life time) stay of patients in the institutions, who in the course of time become incapable of living outside the institution, i.e. they lose basic living skills. Within the organization of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights and partners from Montenegro and Albania, representatives of the NPM were in the study visit to Albania, where they visited prisons. Likewise, within the organization of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, representatives of the NPM also was in the study visit to the Netherlands and then they visited the Probation Service, Ministry of Security and Justice and Forensic Institution INFORSA in Amsterdam. 4.6. Participation of external experts in the NPM activities The NPM teams for visits to the institutions where persons are deprived of their liberty should have multidisciplinary character. The representatives of the Protector of Citizens, Provincial Protector of Citizens and associations within the teams are mainly lawyers, and therefore for an efficient work of the NPM it is necessary to engage external experts in other fields.