On 15 January 2020, the Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia (Ombudsman) organised a regular annual meeting of representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Ombudsman’s representatives participating in the implementation of the tasks of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) at his headquarters.

The meeting was chaired by the head of the NPM Ivan Šelih, Deputy Ombudsman, and attended by Ombudsman’s advisers Robert Gačnik, spec., Mag. Jure Markič and Ana Polutnik, and representatives of the civil society, i.e. Ana Repič, representative of the Legal Information Centre – PIC, Vida Bogataj, representative of the Slovenian Federation of Pensioners’ Associations, Mateja Markovič, representative of the Novi Paradoks Association, Katja Piršič, representative of the Community of Private Institutes – SKUP, Monika Bohinec and Maja Ladič, representatives of the Peace Institute, and Alenka Virant, representative of the Spominčica society. On the basis of the selection made last year, the Ombudsman cooperates with Caritas Slovenia, UNICEF and the PRAVO ZA VSE humanitarian association in the implementation of the NPM tasks.

In carrying out its tasks and powers, the NPM visits all places of deprivation of liberty in the country, checking the treatment of persons who have been deprived of liberty to enhance their protection against torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Taking into account the legal norms, the NPM makes recommendations to the relevant authorities to improve the conditions and treatment of persons, and prevent torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment. In this regard, the NPM can also submit proposals and comments in regard to current or proposed acts.

The purpose of the meeting was to review the work performed in 2019 and prepare the programme of visits for this year. The NPM will prepare a special report for this year on the visits (63 different institutions or places of deprivation of liberty) and issued recommendations and other activities of the NPM in 2019, which will be submitted to the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia for consideration.