educational centres, places of detention of police forces and hospital units with psychiatry inpatient. The NPM visits are made without previous notice to verify the real conditions in which persons deprived of liberty are living in. In order to achieve this goal, NPM’s visitors inquire, among others things, the living conditions, overcrowding and its effects, food quality and medical assistance. The precise definition of objectives to be checked at each visit is planned in advance, according to the type of place that NPM will visit and its specifics problems. After the visits, NPM can make recommendations to the competent authorities and «submit proposals and observations about current legislation or draft legislation on the matter»(5). In order to fulfill its functions, the NPM is assisted by a support structure (EMNP), created in the first year of the Portuguese NPM’s exercise: 2014.(6) 1.3. The structure supporting the National Preventive Mechanism The creation of EMNP crystallizes the organic and functional autonomy of NPM activity. This support structure was regulated by internal Order No. 1/2014 (NPM), of April 29th.(7) In order to better pursue its mission through a concatenation of multiples experiences and knowledges, the constitution of EMNP relies on the multidisciplinary participation of society. As it will be explained bellow, this support structure is composed by the Advisory Council, the Steering Committee and the Visitors Team, endowed likewise with a specific administrative support. 1.3.1. The Advisory Council The NPM consultative body is the Advisory Council and it is comprised by 12 members, one of which is the Ombudsman, who presides. Six of them are appointed by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, the High Council of the Judiciary, the High Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, (5)  Point 1 of mentioned Resolution of the Council of Ministers No. 32/2013. (6)  About the EMNP, it should be mentioned that, on April 8th, 2015, the Ombudsman was heard in the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, when he defended an amendment to its Organic Law. The proposal to achieve three members for his staff to only work in NPM was not, however, approved. (7)  This document can be consulted online, in the Portuguese version, on the following address: http://www.provedor-jus.pt/site/public/archive/doc/EMNP_-_Regulamento.pdf. |9