The Defensor del Pueblo has partially renewed the Advisory Council for the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment (Mecanismo Nacional de Prevención de la Tortura) (NPM).
A professor of administrative law, Lorenzo Martín-Retortillo; a judge and member of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture, María José García-Galán, and the counsel for the State Jesús López-Medel were elected from among the people who stood for the post in a public call for candidates, either in a personal capacity or on behalf of civil society organisations.
The clinical psychologist and vice-president of the Official Association of Psychologists of the Autonomous Region of Valencia, Vicenta Esteve (nominated by the General Council of Official Associations of Psychologists of Spain) was also appointed a member of the MNP Advisory Council.
The new members join Milagros Fuentes, a lawyer and the dean of the Santa Cruz de La Palma Bar Association (who was nominated by proposal of the General Council of the Spanish Legal Profession); Berta María Uriel MD, vice-president of the Associations of Medical Practitioners of Ourense (Galicia), (nominated by proposal of the Spanish Organisation of Medical Associations); Emilio Ginés, a member of the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, and Julián Carlos Ríos, a lawyer specialised in prison law and lecturer in criminal law.
The Advisory Council is a technical and legal cooperation body of the Defensor del Pueblo in the exercise of its functions as a MNP.
