On 25 and 26 of May 2017, representatives from National Preventive Mechanism of Torture (NPMT), which functions within the Ombudsperson Institution of Kosovo, participated in two days’ workshop of the SEE NPM Network with the theme “Treatment of persons with mental disabilities in detention” which was held in Belgrade, since Serbia’s NPMT during this year precedes with this network.

All SEE NPM participated in this event as well as experts such as: Mr. Armen Avetisyan, from the Secretariat on Subcommittee of Torture Prevention (SPT); Mrs. Margaret Osterfield, member of SPT; Mr. Jean-Sebasien Blanc, monitoring advisor from Association on Prevention of Torture (APT)

Among the main issues discussed in the workshop by present NPMs was concerns about two worrying trends: the increasing use and abuse of the concept of “dangerousness” enabling institutions to violate people’s rights; and the important lowering of the threshold for depriving someone of his/her liberty on psychiatric grounds.

Best practices have been exchanged between participants as well as challenges derived from their experiences in the course of monitoring of detention institutions. NPM findings and recommendations for their counties have been discussed also.