THE DEPARTMENT FOR THE PREVENTION OF TORTURE AND
OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR
PUNISHMENT IN PLACES OF DETENTION – NPM
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment… not even
in time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation.”
(Articles 3 and 15 (2) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms)
“The National Preventive Mechanisms are those
who give the OPCAT strength, direction,
momentum and hope to achieve its objectives”
Elizabeth Odio Benito
(Judge, President of the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights)
Department on the
Prevention of Torture - NPM
By ratifying the Optional Protocol of 18 December 2002 to the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT),
Romania has undertaken to set up the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in
Detention (NPM). Thus, in 2014, by GEO no. 48 it was established that the People's Advocate
institution, through the Department for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment in places of detention, shall fulfill the specific duties of a
national preventive mechanism. NPM exercises a preventive mandate, its role being to identify
situations with potential risk of ill-treatment.
The activity of the NPM consists mainly in: carrying out regular visits, announced or
unannounced, in places of detention, formulating recommendations to the managements of the
places visited and the hierarchically superior authorities and formulating proposals for
legislative changes. The purpose of the monitoring activity is to strengthen the protection of
persons deprived of their liberty against ill-treatment and ensure the non-discriminatory
exercise of fundamental rights.
Place of detention means any place where a person is or may be deprived of liberty,
and deprivation of liberty means any form of detention or imprisonment or the placement
of a person in a public or private custodial setting, from which this person is not permitted
to leave at will, by order of any judicial, administrative or other public authority,
including by decisions of legal persons managing social services. Also, Law no. 35/1997,
republished (Art. 34 letter (j)) states that all places that are part of the social assistance
system are subject to NPM monitoring.
In the context of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictive measures adopted by the
authorities, throughout the state of emergency and subsequently the state of alert, NPM made
every effort to fulfill its mission to verify the observance of fundamental rights of the persons
who are or could be deprived of their liberty and their protection against ill-treatment. For this
purpose, NPM monitored all types of places of detention which, according to Art. 4 of the
OPCAT fall within its sphere of competence, including institutionalized quarantine places and
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