Bilateral cooperation

The relevant jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the findings of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) highlight areas for improvement where member States need to act in order to conform to the Council of Europe’s standards in the field of prisons and as regards the actions of law enforcement officials. Based on the European Prison Rules, the Council of Europe Probation Rules and the European Rules on juvenile offenders, the programme carries out assistance activities. Emphasis is placed on human rights and management issues in prisons, and on combating ill-treatment and impunity as regards law enforcement structures. The Council of Europe is the pan-European platform for discussion of new challenges facing law enforcement and correctional services, which inform standard setting and exchange of good practices.

NEWS

Back Conference of the Police Network on police databases and data protection

@ Council of Europe

The Council of Europe’s Police Network hosted its annual conference on 19-21 March 2024 in Strasbourg (France).

This event was dedicated to “Police data processing - How to harmonize police efficiency with data protection and Human Rights”. It brought together high-ranking representatives of Ministries of Interior and national police services, academia, IPCAN (Independent Police Complaints Authorities’ Network), and CESP (the European Council of Police Trade Unions), representatives of INTERPOL and the European Commission.

Police data processing, police information system, analysis tools and data protection are at the core of police work today, and thus the objectives of the conference were:

to learn and exchange best practices on the implementation of the Council of Europe standards affecting the police and data protection
to explore the state of play and future developments concerning information sharing and analysis mechanisms in Europe
to understand better the link between police data processing and human rights in democratic societies
to emphasise importance of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108)
to learn more about data protection from supervising bodies existing in Council of Europe member states and at the European level
to disseminate the ECtHR case law regarding police data processing and human rights
to get familiar with the Council of Europe work on a convention on Artificial Intelligence

The conference was organised within the German Chairmanship for the police Network.

A new Chair was elected during the conference.

Strasbourg, France 19-21 March 2024