With which authorities do NPMs maintain dialogue?

The NPMs’ holistic approach requires identifying possible root causes of the problems encountered, as well as the risks that increase the possibility of torture and other forms of ill-treatment to occur. Therefore, NPMs need to analyse not only the conditions and functioning of places of detention, but also the broader regulatory, institutional, policy and legal frameworks.  

This is why NPMs need to engage with a variety of authorities at different levels:

• Authorities responsible for running places of detention (i.e. directors of prisons, directors of psychiatric institutions).
• Staff working in places of deprivation of liberty, including prison guards, nurses, social workers, police officers and immigration officers.
• Line Ministries and supervising authorities of places of deprivation of liberty or services within those places, such as the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Immigration Service, Penitentiary Service. Within those institutions, it is important for NPMs to engage both at the political/high-level and technical one, with specific departments that are relevant for their work.
• Other Ministries or specialised agencies or departments of the executive branch, such as the Ministry of Finance, Human Rights Secretariat, Women Secretariat.

When they start to be operational, it is recommended that NPMs map out the institutions - and departments within each institution – that are relevant to their work, and then have a first meeting with them, including to explain their mandate. NPMs would also need to regularly review and update the institutional mapping. Mapping out the relevant institutions allows NPMs to better target their dialogue and be strategic in their interactions. A useful and practical tool to do that is the stakeholder mapping.

While the main addressees of NPM dialogue are authorities from the executive branch, NPMs also interact with members of Parliament and judicial actors, such as judges and public defenders. They may be the addressees of some NPMs’ recommendations but, more often, maintaining dialogue with these actors is instrumental to build collaboration, for instance to get NPMs’ recommendations implemented by the executive authorities.