INTRODUCING NPM Obs
Introducing
NPM Obs 

What is NPM Obs?

NPM Obs is short for "NPM Observatory" : the "Observatory of national preventive mechanisms against torture" set up pursuant to the OPCAT.

Our role

NPM Obs wishes to contribute to strengthening the protection of persons deprived of their liberty from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in countries where national preventive mechanisms (NPMs) have been established. 

To this end, NPM Obs observes at the request of NPMs the manner in which they carry out the tasks assigned to them under OPCAT.

NPM Obs may formulate recommendations aiming at optimising the observed NPM’s effectiveness. While NPM Obs remains independent of any national or international authority, NPM or organisation, it willingly engages with international, regional or national bodies involved in the implementation of the OPCAT.

Who we are

All members of NPM Obs have in one capacity or another been involved in the prevention of torture since or even before the adoption of the OPCAT. Consequently, the association brings together multiple skills and a wide range of experience in this field.

Bureau

Petur

Hauksson

CHAIR

Psychiatrist, former head of the psychiatric department, Reykjalundur Rehabilitation Centre. Member (2000-2011) and Vice President (2008-2011) of the CPT and expert (2012-2020) for the CPT.


Patrizio
Gonnella

TREASURER
Chairman of Antigone (Italy), founder of the National Observatory of Italian prisons (1998) and the European Prison Observatory (2002). Professor of Sociology of Law at Rome Three University.
Markus Jaeger

Markus
Jaeger

SECRETARY
Head of Cooperation with Independent Human Rights Bodies Division of the Council of Europe (2013-2019), Deputy to the Director of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights (2002-2009), Acting General Counsel of Interpol (2000-2002).

Members

Silvia 
Casale

MEMBER
President of the CPT (2000-2007) and SPT (2007-2009), adviser on the Council of Europe Peer to Peer NPM programme (2010 - 2012).

Nick
Hardwick

MEMBER
Professor Royal Holloway University of London. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons and Chair of the UK NPM (2010-2016). Chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales (2016-2018). Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (2003-2010).

Marco
Mona

 MEMBER
District Attorney, Judge and since 1981 lawyer in a Zurich Law firm. President of the APT (1990-2006). Member of the Swiss Prevention Mechanism (2010-2013) and member of the Swiss Commission against Racism. 

Marie
Steinbrecher

 MEMBER

Garance
Tardieu

MEMBER
Garance has a degree in Political Science from the Institut des Etudes Politiques de Grenoble and a doctorate in Law.
- Droit de l'Homme- at Grenoble 2 in 2021, Garance specialises in the study of human rights in
in Latin America. She is currently a political adviser to the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, with responsibility for Latin America.

Patrick
Marest

MEMBER
Director of the International Prisons Observatory (OIP) in France (1996-2011).

Marc
Neve

MEMBER
Lawyer, member of CPT (1999-2011). Chairperson of Lawyers Without Borders (1999-2004), member of Central Council of Prison supervision (Belgium).

Anne 
Owers

MEMBER

José Ignacio Rivera Beiras

MEMBER
PhD in Penitentiary Law at the University of Barcelona. He founded in 2001 the Observatory of the Penal System and Human Rights and in 2016 the System for Registration and Communication of institutional violence (SIRECOVI).

Trevor 
Stevens

MEMBER
Executive Secretary of the CPT (1989 - 2014).

Sharon
Shalev

MEMBER
Criminologist and a human rights advocate, specializing in conditions of detention 
and the rights of people deprived of their liberty. She works as an independent consultant in these 
areas and is Research Associate at the Centre for Criminology at Oxford University, and at the 
Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Vincent
Theis

MEMBER
Prison director in Luxembourg (1983-2016). Member of the CPT (2010-2013).

Secretariat

Ekaterina
Kirilenko

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT

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