On 28-30 September 2016 consultations between the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) and the Republican Collegium of Advocates and the Council of Europe Secretariat took place in the Council of Europe headquarters in Strasbourg. The consultations were devoted to the role of the Ombudsman and the NPM in the prevention and combating of ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty, the effective and independent investigation of allegations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment, as well as European standards on human rights protection in the criminal justice system and relevant good practices in Council of Europe member states. The visit also served as a forum for exchange of good practices and lessons learned with other European human rights institutions, namely the French NPM, the Greek Commission for Human Rights and the Russian Public Oversight Commissions.

In course of bilateral meetings with representatives of the Council of Europe Secretariat, the delegation had opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), the European Court of Human Rights, the Department of the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretariat to the Lanzarote Committee and the Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO), as well as other monitoring and standard-setting bodies. The visit contributed to increased awareness of the Kazakh human rights institutions responsible for prevention and combating ill-treatment on relevant Council of Europe standards on Article 3 of the European Convention of Human Rights “Prohibition of torture”, CPT standards, as well as standards related to the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, violence against women and domestic violence.