Among the participants were acting chairperson of the UN Committee against Torture (CAT), Jens Modvig, OSCE adviser on torture prevention, Stephanie Selg, Lela Tsiskarshvili from the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) and head of the Norwegian NPM, Helga Fastrup Ervik.
During the meeting, several of the OSCE member states gave their strong support to strengthening the work on prevention of torture and ill-treatment within the framework of the OSCE.
In her presentation, Helga Fastrup Ervik pointed to the important role national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) under the OPCAT mandate can play. She encouraged the OSCE to support the work of NPMs locally through its presence in a number of OSCE member states as well as regionally by contributing to a gathering of NPMs where they can meet and learn from each other. She futher talked about the Norwegian NPM’s findings from visits to prisons, mental health care institutions and the police immigration detention center in Norway.
Read Ervik’s presentation and see her PowerPoint presentation.
