News 2021

Natrag Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Bulgaria

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 Bulgaria from 1 to 13 October 2021. It was the Committee's eighth periodic visit to this country.

The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Bulgarian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. In this connection, particular attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and penitentiary establishments. The delegation also examined the treatment, conditions and legal safeguards offered to psychiatric patients, and residents of social care institutions.

In the course of the visit, the delegation had consultations with Mariya Pavlova, Deputy Minister of Justice, Ventislav Katinov, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Toma Tomov, Deputy Minister of Health, Nadya Klisurska and Ivan Krastev, Deputy Ministers of Labour and Social Policy, as well as with senior officials from the aforementioned Ministries. The delegation also met representatives of a non-governmental organisation active in areas of concern to the CPT.

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

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

Alan Mitchell, President of the CPT (Head of delegation)
Mykola Gnatovskyy
Solvita Olsena
Davor Strinović
Marika Väli

They were supported by Borys Wódz (Head of Division) and Dalia Žukauskienė of the CPT’s Secretariat, and assisted by three experts - Clive Meux, forensic psychiatrist, United Kingdom, Tomáš Petr, mental health nurse, Czech Republic, and George Tugushi, lawyer and former Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia.

The delegation visited the following places of deprivation of liberty: