News 2021

Επιστροφή Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Lithuania

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Lithuania from 10 to 20 December 2021. It was the Committee's eighth visit to the country.

The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of persons held in police and prison establishments as well as of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation. The delegation also reviewed the legal safeguards offered to involuntary psychiatric patients. Particular attention was paid during the visit to the measures taken by the Lithuanian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits.

In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with Agnė Bilotaitė, Minister of the Interior, Evelina Dobrovolska, Minister of Justice, Arūnas Dulkys, Minister of Health, Vitalij Dmitrijev, Deputy Minister of the Interior, and Elanas Jablonskas, Deputy Minister of Justice, as well as with Virginijus Kulikauskas, Director of the Prison Department, Renatas Požėla, Police Commissioner General, Rimantas Petrauskas, Deputy Head of the State Border Guard Service and other senior officials from the Ministries of the Interior, Justice and Health.

In addition, the delegation met the Seimas Ombudspersons Erika Leonaitė and Milda Vainiutė, and staff of the National Preventive Mechanism Department of the Ombudspersons’ Office.

At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary observations to the Lithuanian authorities.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

Vânia Costa Ramos (Head of delegation)
Dagmar Breznoščáková
Georg Høyer
Slava Novak
Tinatin Uplisashvili.

They were supported by Aurélie Pasquier and Dalia Žukauskienė of the CPT’s Secretariat and assisted by two experts: Marzena Ksel, medical doctor, former Head of the Medical Department of the Prison Service (Poland), and Jurgen Van Poecke, Prison Director (Belgium).

The delegation visited the following places of deprivation of liberty:

Police establishments