Norwegian Organisation for Asylum seekers visits the Austrian Ombudsman Board

In the course of a three-day research visit a representative of the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum seekers (NOAS) visited the Austrian Ombudsman Board (AOB) on 8 November 2012. The conversation focused on the new mandate of the Austrian Ombudsman Board as National Preventive Mechanism (NPM).

Since its foundation in 1984, NOAS is dedicated to advance the interests of asylum seekers in Norway. Representatives of the AOB informed about the extended mandate as of 1 July 2012 which implements inter alia the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). The AOB and its six Commissions act as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). The meeting helped to clarify central questions of the Norwegian NGO in regard to the monitoring activities of the AOB as well as the cooperation with civil society in the Human Rights Advisory Council.