E. Further activities of the National Agency in the period under review 1. Specialist associations and public relations work Particularly in the initial period, there was an expectation that the National Agency would make its activities known in the political arena and communicate with the various contacts.30 The National Agency has not always been able to meet these expectations, in part due to its scarce staffing resources. Hence, particular attention was paid in the context of its activities to publicising its considerably expanded spectrum of tasks, after the addition of the Commission of the Länder, to a broad specialist public and to exploring possibilities for cooperation. To this end, the National Agency established and expanded contacts with various interlocutors in the Ministries, authorities and other public institutions, as well as with Members of the Bundestag, and with organisations and institutions that are active in human rights policy. For instance, the president of the Commission of the Länder attended a session of the prison committee of the Länder immediately after the start of operations, where he introduced the work of the Commission. The National Agency gained particular attention through a visit by Federal Minister of Justice Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger in March 2011. Furthermore, the Chairman of the Commission of the Länder expanded contacts with various committees of the Bundestag in the first half of 2011. Meetings took place with the chairpersons of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Human Rights, Committee on Legal Affairs and Committee on Internal Affairs. Since the Commission itself does not have a member with specialist medical or psychiatric knowledge, associations with experts in this field are particularly important. Hence, in September 2011, the Commission entered into written contact with visiting psychiatric commissions in the individual Federal Länder. Here especially, future networking and an exchange of experience is the focus. A meeting took place in Berlin with the human rights commissioner and current President of the German Medical Association Dr. med. Montgomery in May 2011 in order to heighten its profile among physicians. Subsequent to this meeting, the Commission of the Länder presented its work in an article that appeared in the Deutsches Ärzteblatt.31 A meeting has how taken place between the human rights commissioner of the Medical Associations and the National Agency to explore closer cooperation in the field of medicine. Furthermore, the National Agency increased its contact with the German Institute for Human Rights and with various human rights organisations in the period under review. To this end, the Chairman of the Commission of the Länder met amongst others two members of the Forum Menschenrechte in Berlin. A joint event took place in November 2011 with the German Institute for Human Rights on the topic of “Prevention of torture and mistreatment in Germany”, which particularly served an exchange with non-governmental organisations. At the end of the event there were concrete agreements for future cooperation. The Director of the Federal Agency met amongst others the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office and the President of the Federal Police Headquarters. What is more, first contact was established with the Federal Ministry of Finance in September 2010. Facilities of the customs authorities fall within the remit of the Ministry, which are also to be inspected by the Federal Agency. 30 Because of their scope, the activities of the National Agency are only to be portrayed in excerpts here. A table list of all visits made can be found in the Annex (cf. III.). 31 Geiger, Hansjörg/Hof, Christina (2012): Ein unabhängiger Blick in Deutschlands Gefängnisse. Deutsches Ärzteblatt, Year 109, Vol. 4, pp. 146-148. 80