Between 24 and 28 November 2025, the Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia hosted a study visit by the Slovak delegation of the National Preventive Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture (NPM). The visit was intended to facilitate the exchange of best practices, reinforcement of expert collaboration, and direct insight into the operation of the Slovenian mechanism.

Together with the NPM members, Deputy Ombudsman Ivan Šelih, simultaneously the head of the Slovenian NPM, introduced the competences and organisation of the Slovenian National preventive Mechanism to the Slovak colleagues. The guests were also familiarised with the details of the NPM’s work in protecting the rights of persons with restricted freedom in the inclusion of non-governmental organisations into control processes. The visit programme also included a presentation of the cooperation with the NPM by representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior, Department for the Investigation and Prosecution of Official Persons Having Special Authority operating as an independent internal organisational unit with a special position with the Specialised State Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Prison Administration, Ministry of Solidarity-Based Future, Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, and Ministry of Health.

Fieldwork constituted an essential part of the visit, during which the delegation members together with the Slovenian NPM representatives visited the Dob pri Mirni Prison, Detention Centre, Vojnik Psychiatric Hospital, Hrastovec Special Social Welfare Institution, and Radovljica Training, Work, and Care Center. The visits offered the guests from Slovakia a direct insight into the practice of monitoring places of deprivation of liberty and into the challenges faced by the Slovenian institutions while ensuring the human rights of vulnerable persons in the field.

The visit significantly added to the strengthening of expert collaboration between the states and solidification of high standards of preventing inhuman or degrading treatment.