The report focuses on the treatment of persons in police custody, the situation in the prisons of both Entities and psychiatric facilities in the Sarajevo Canton. It also assesses the extent to which the recommendations made after previous CPT visits in 2011 and 2012 have been implemented.

The main findings of the CPT are set out in the Executive Summary of the report. The CPT highlights the existence of widespread physical ill-treatment of detained persons by law enforcement officials in both Entities and the ineffectiveness of the safeguards in place to prevent ill-treatment. The report is particularly critical of the presence of seven chronically psychotic forensic psychiatric patients at the remand section of Tuzla Prison who were being held in poor and unhygienic material conditions and were not receiving the medical and nursing care they required. As regards juveniles, the CPT recommends that immediate steps be taken to improve the situation of juveniles held at Tuzla Prison where the conditions were poor and where there was a lack of purposeful activities.

The response of the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina is due in September 2016.

The CPT’s report has been made public at the request of the Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is available in English and Bosnian on the Committee’s website: http://www.cpt.coe.int.