On December 7, 2020, Deputy Ombudsman Ivan Šelih and members of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) attended the second online workshop of members of the SEE NPM Network on the topic of monitoring the implementation of the NPM recommendations (particularly the aspect of exercising the rights of detained persons during police detention) and working in special situations, such as pandemics and other challenges of fulfilling the NPM mandate.

Deputy Šelih presented the experience of implementing the recommendations of NPM Slovenia to the participants of the online event, which is a commitment of State Parties to the Optional Protocol. According to Article 22 of the Optional Protocol, the competent authorities of the State Party must examine the NPM recommendations and enter into a dialogue with it on possible implementation measures. All recommendations and responses of the competent authorities from the NPM’s visits in Slovenia are published in special spreadsheets arranged in order of visited institutions on the Ombudsman’s website. Following the example and good experiences of certain national preventive mechanisms, particularly from Austria, we decided in 2018 to prepare special spreadsheets for the review of the issued NPM recommendations, which was presented to the participants as an example of good practice by a member of the NPM, Ana Polutnik.

The participants in the event also agreed that the situation of the coronavirus disease had brought unique challenges and the need to adapt the activities of the NPM regarding the protection of persons deprived of their liberty and emphasised the need to apply the “do not harm” principle to visits and adopt all preventive measures for members of the NPM and in relation to persons and staff of prisons.

At the end of the online event, members of the network agreed on the activities of the network stated below and that the network will be chaired next year by NPM Hungary.