Deputy Ombudsman Ivan Šelih and his colleagues involved in the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) hosted their colleagues from North Macedonia for two days. As part of their study visit, the guests became acquainted with the structure of the National Preventive Mechanism in Slovenia, its rich experience and diverse good practices, as they are striving to establish such a mechanism in their own country.
The task of each NPM is to visit all locations in the country where persons are deprived of their liberty and inspect how such persons are treated in order to strengthen their protection against torture and other cruel, inhuman or humiliating treatment or punishment. While observing suitable legal norms, the NPM makes recommendations to the relevant authorities to improve the conditions and treatment of people and prevent torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In this regard, the NPM may also submit proposals and comments to the applicable or drafted acts.
The institution of the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia was entrusted with the tasks and powers of the NPM in 2006. The Ombudsman thus became an integral part of a generally applicable system under the auspices of the United Nations, which enforces an (additional) mechanism for the prevention of torture and other forms of ill-treatment of people deprived of liberty at the international and national levels.
The colleagues from the Ombudsman institution of North Macedonia learned about the foundations of the National Preventive Mechanism and detailed methods and particularities when conducting preventive visits to prisons, special social care institutions, centres for children with emotional and behavioural problems and disorders, psychiatric hospitals, occupational activity centres, police stations, the Asylum Centre and the Centre for Foreigners. They also visited the Logatec Education and Training Institution that accommodates children with emotional and behavioural problems and disorders and the Dr Marijan Borštnar Dornava Institute for Education, Work and Care.
