Five states signed today a new protocol aiming to modernise and improve the European legal framework for the transfer of sentenced persons.
Austria, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland were the first to sign this new treaty which amends the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, taking into account the evolution in international co-operation in this field since its entry into force in June 2000.
The treaty was opened for signature in a ceremony in Strasbourg in the presence of the Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni.
The purpose of the Additional Protocol is to provide rules applicable to the transfer of the execution of sentences where a sentenced person has left the sentencing State before having completed the execution of the sentence and is in the State of his or her nationality.
In addition, the protocol establishes the rules that would apply for sentenced persons subject to expulsion or deportation after having served their sentences. The treaty aims to promote this kind of transfers arguing that it can favour the rehabilitation of these individuals, since once the sentence has been completed, they would no longer be permitted to stay in the sentencing country. The decision may be taken by both states after consulting the sentenced person concerned.
