9 The Parliamentary Ombudsman's prevention mandate On 14 May 2013, the Storting voted in favour of Norway ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, abbreviated OPCAT. The Storting awarded the task of exercising the mandate set out in OPCAT to the Parliamentary Ombudsman. In 2014, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) was established as a department under the Parliamentary Ombudsman to address this area of the Ombudsman’s work. The Parliamentary Ombudsman, represented by the NPM, conducts regular visits to places where people are deprived of their liberty, such as prisons, police custody facilities, mental healthcare institutions and child welfare institutions. The visits can be both announced and unannounced. The NPM has right of access to all places of detention and the right to speak in private with people who have been deprived of their liberty. The NPM also has right of access to all necessary information that is relevant to the conditions for people deprived of their liberty. As part of its prevention efforts, the NPM engages in extensive dialogue with national authorities, control and supervisory bodies in the public administration, other ombudsmen, civil society, NPMs in other countries and international organisations in the human rights field. An advisory committee has been established that contributes expertise, information, advice and input to the prevention work. The UN Convention against Torture The UN Convention against Torture states that torture and inhuman treatment are strictly prohibited and that no exceptions can be made from this prohibition under any circumstances. States that endorse the convention are obliged to prohibit, prevent and punish all use of ­torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. According to the Convention, each State party shall ‘ensure that its competent ­authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction’.1 Norway ratified the Convention against Torture in 1986. The Prohibition against torture is set out in various parts of Norwegian legislation, including Article 93 of the Norwegian Constitution. — The UN Convention against Torture states that torture and inhuman treatment are strictly prohibited and that no exceptions can be made from this prohibition under any circumstances. — 1 See the UN Convention against Torture Article 12.