Commissioner for Human Rights

[10/12/08 10:00] Prison conditions, migrants, measures against discrimination, women's and children's rights will be some of the main topics that the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Thomas Hammarberg, will assess during his five-day high-level visit to Belgium starting on 15 December.

Commissioner Hammarberg and his team will visit institutions of human rights relevance in Brussels and Antwerp, such as prisons, centres for detention of minors and shelters for women. The Commissioner will also hold meetings with federal government representatives, included the Prime Minister, Yves Leterme, the ministers for foreign affairs, interior, justice and for migration and asylum policy, ministers of the French Community and Wallonia region, as well as minister-presidents of the Flemish region and the German-speaking community..

Further meetings will be held with the Presidents of the Constitutional Court of Belgium, the federal ombudsmen, the ombudsmen for children, the centre for equal opportunities and opposition to racism, the institute for the equality of women and men, as well as representatives of non-governmental organisations and the Bar associations.

After his meeting with the Prime Minister, the Commissioner's preliminary observations will be presented during a press conference on Friday 19 which will start at 3.15 p,m. in the "Maison des Parlementaires" (Rotonde 1 - Rue de Louvain, 21 - 1000 Brussels).

The visit falls within a series of activities carried out in accordance with the Commissioner's mandate to assess the implementation of human rights commitments by all Council of Europe member states. An assessment report with relevant recommendations will be published early 2009.