How should NPMs react externally to complaints?

The following actions may be taken by the NPM to react to complaints:

• Some situations brought to the attention of the NPM during visits can, with the consent of the person concerned, be immediately addressed by informing the management of the institution, in order for it to take the necessary action, including educational or disciplinary measures or replacement of staff, when required.
• At the same time, or if the management of the place does not take the required action, the NPM can notify, make recommendations to and follow-up with the responsible authorities (for example, the medical service within the facility, the penitentiary service, the Ministry of Justice, etc.).
• In other cases, depending on the seriousness of the issue, NPMs may also decide to carry out ad-hoc or reactive visits.
• NPMs can also refer complaints to other institutions. For specialised institutions, it is recommended, whenever possible, to refer complaints to a specialised and independent institution other than the NPM, to preserve its focus on the preventive mandate. NPMs would need to clarify to which institutions they can refer complaints, for instance Ombuds Institutions, National Human Rights Commissions or independent complaints mechanisms, and which information they should share, for example whether they will share only their preliminary findings or also concrete evidence and support documentation such as transcription of interviews. When NPMs are part of broader institutions with complaints handling powers, such as National Human Rights Institutions, they may refer complaints to another department of the institution in charge of investigating complaints. In all cases, it is important for the NPM to be able to follow-up on a few complaints to assess the effectiveness of the existing complaints mechanisms. Finally, NPMs can refer these cases to other specialised institutions with a mandate to handle individual complaints, for example specialised ombuds institutions for children, police, armed forces, etc. In some cases, this may require MoU or other formal agreements.