The mission of the National Preventive Mechanism (hereinafter NPM) includes investigation of the treatment of persons deprived
of their liberty on a regular basis, submission of respective improvement recommendations to the competent authorities, and,
finally submission of proposals and observations regarding the applicable legislation or drafting of legislation. The Ombudsman,
since taking on its new duties, noted that it will fulfil its mission in a fair and constructive manner. Article 4 of L. 4228/2014
stipulates that the National Preventive Mechanism visits all, public or private, places of detention, with or without previously
informing the competent authorities Such places are prisons, police station cells, psychiatric institutions, places of administrative
detention of third-country nationals, welfare institutions, etc. In fact, in line with international practices, these visits may be carried
out on non-working days or even during night hours. The inspection by the National Preventive Mechanism includes the
collection of evidence using any available means, such as, indicatively visiting all detention places, interviewing persons and
taking photographs. Furthermore, according to the general competence of Article 103(9) of the Constitution and Law 3094/2003,
the Ombudsman has access to all files, documents, data or archives. To implement the mission assigned to the Ombudsman, a
working group was set up regarding the activities of the “National Preventive Mechanism” (NPM), under the responsibility of a
Deputy Ombudsman, also appointing a Group coordinator and his substitute. The group started operating in October 2014 and
continued its work during 2015 on three key areas:
• Analysing the scope and extent of its competence, good practices and search for collaborations, in the direction of the efficient
exercise of the competences.
• Defining the methodology of the investigation, collection of data, processing and presentation of findings and
recommendations.
• Establishing the criteria for prioritising the selection of the detention facilities to be visited.
WORKSHOPS, INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AND OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE NPM
In the context of the cooperation between the Ministry of Justice with the Greek Ombudsman as an NPM, a meeting was held on
20 November between the Deputy Ombudsman Mr. Vassilis Karydis and the Minister of Justice, Mr. Nikos Paraskevopoulos.
The Secretary General of Crime Policy and Ministry and Ombudsman officers also took part in the discussion. The subject of the
meeting was the crime and correctional policy, in the light of the respect for human dignity, the improvement of the detention
conditions and the prevention of any form of ill-treatment, while there was thorough briefing on the legislative and organisational
initiatives taken, as well as a detailed discussion on the Ombudsman's recommendations to the Ministry. Finally, an effort was
made to find the common ground and the convergences on the issues that affect both sides. Of a similar nature was the
preceding attendance by the Ombudsman at the time, Ms Calliope Spanou, together with Deputy Ombudsmen, Mr. Vassilis
Karydis and Mr. George Moschos, on 8 April, at the Standing Parliamentary Committee on Public Administration, Public Order
and Justice during the discussion of the bill "Reforms of criminal provisions, elimination of Type C detention facilities and other
provisions". The transparency and accountability of the Hellenic Police, in the context of the disciplinary investigation of
complaints about arbitrary police behaviour, were, among other things, the main subject of the working meeting that took place
on 19 May with the Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Giannis Panousis, the Secretary General of Public Order, the Greek
Ombudsman and the above Deputy Ombudsmen.
In the context of the cooperation established between the Ombudsman, as an NPM, and the Subcommittee on Prevention of
Torture (SPT) of the UN, the Chair of the SPT, professor Malcolm Evans, visited the NPM offices on 8 January where he met
with the Ombudsman, the Deputy Ombudsman, head of the NPM, and experts of the working group on NPM issues. Opinions
were exchanged during the visit on issues related to the establishment of the mechanisms, the good operation, good practices
and the general challenges faced by the National Preventive Mechanisms, while both parties confirmed their willingness to set
up a framework for ongoing dialogue and possible forms of cooperation. A team from the Committee for the Prevention of
Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe met on 20 April with the Ombudsman, the Deputy Ombudsmen Vassilis Karydis and
George Moschos, and officers of the Authority, and they discussed issues mainly pertaining to police detention conditions, the
disciplinary investigation of cases of arbitrary police behaviour, as well as the investigation of cases of racist violence.
On 2 March, Deputy Ombudsman Mr. George Moschos participated in the conference of The CTP at 25: taking stock and
moving forward, at the opportunity of the 25 years of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe, where
he coordinated a discussion on the subject of "The detention of minors". On 4 June, Deputy Ombudsman Mr. Vassilis Karydis,
represented the NPM in a Workshop on Ombudsinstitutions as NPMs which was organised in Warsaw by the Association for the
Prevention of Torture (APT). On 16-19 June, the expert - coordinator of the working group of the NPM participated in a training
workshop on the subject of "Implementing a preventive mandate", which was organised in Riga, by the International
Ombudsman Institute (IOI) in cooperation with the Ombudsman of Latvia and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT.
On 29 September, Deputy Ombudsman Mr. Vassilis Karydis participated in a round table titled "Roundtable discussion on pretrial detention" which was organised in Bristol by the Human Rights Implementation Centre of the University of Bristol (HRIC) and
the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). The NPM is a member of the European Network of National Preventive Mechanisms
against Torture and more recently in the Network of National Preventive Mechanisms of South-Europe.
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