LEGAL FRAMEWORK 1. The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) The Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture is the first international treaty that introduces a double system – international and national – for preventing torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The OPCAT establishes a Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) on international level, and at the same time requires States parties to set up NPMs on national level. According to the OPCAT, the SPT has three primary operational functions. First, it may visit any place where persons may be deprived of their liberty. Second, it provides advice and assistance to the National Preventive Mechanisms and recommendations to the States Parties with a view to enhancing NPMs’ capacity and mandate. And third, it cooperates with other UN, international and regional bodies as well as national institutions or organisaitons working for the protection of all people deprived of their liberty. Article 3 OPCAT requires States Parties to “set up, designate or maintain at the domestic level one or several visiting bodies for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. This body or bodies are the National Preventive Mechanism. Each State Party to the OPCAT has its own way to determine its NPM. Some have identified existing bodies to carry out the mandate of the NPM, while in others new bodies have been created to assume this role. For an NPM to function as an independent body, Article 18 OPCAT requires States Parties to guarantee the functional and financial independence of the preventive mechanism so as to ensure that the NPM may function free from any State interference. Article 18 specifically refers to the Principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (“the Paris Principles”). 2. Ombudsman Act The NPM's function has been delegated to the Ombudsman by the amendments and supplements to the Ombudsman Act, promulgated in State Gazette (SG), issue no. 29 of 10 April 2012. A new chapter was included in the law, which translates the requirements of OPCAT: "a" National Preventive Mechanism (new – SG no. 29/2012, effective as of 11 May 2012) Article 28 (а) (new – SG no. 29/2012, effective as of 11 May 2012) (1) The powers of the Ombudsman as a National Preventive Mechanism concern places where there are persons deprived of their liberty, or where persons are detained or accommodated as a result of an act or with the consent of a public authority, which places they cannot leave at their own will, in order to protect such persons from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 13