2018 News
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Bulgaria to assess the situation of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation
The objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation. To this end, the CPT’s delegation visited Border Police detention facilities in Elhovo, Sofia Airport and Svilengrad (Kapitan Andreevo) and carried out...
The Republic of Moldova should put an end to informal power structures among prisoners, says Council of Europe anti-torture committee
The purpose of the visit was to assess progress made in implementing the CPT’s previous recommendations concerning the situation in prisons, in particular as regards the phenomenon of an informal prison hierarchy and the related problem of inter-prisoner violence and intimidation as well as the...
Anti-torture committee welcomes improvements in Northern Ireland and calls for further progress
In a report published today, the committee highlighted the “enormous culture change” that has taken place within the Police Service of Northern Ireland since the 1990s. Safeguards against ill-treatment operate satisfactorily, it said, and their application in several police stations might be...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Albania
The main objective of the visit was to review progress made as regards the implementation of recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. Particular attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and of inmates in several prison...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits France
The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of persons deprived of their liberty under immigration and asylum law. In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with senior officials of the Ministry of the Interior and of the Ministry...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Hungary
During the visit, the delegation focussed its attention on the situation of persons in police custody, prisoners placed in HSR units (special regime units for inmates serving long sentences, including whole life sentences), juvenile prisoners and persons placed in social care homes. In the course...
CPT holds its November 2018 plenary meeting
During this meeting, the Committee adopted the reports on its periodic visits to the Slovak Republic (March 2018) and Norway (May/June 2018), and on its ad hoc visits to Lithuania (April 2018), Turkey (April 2018) and the Republic of Moldova (June 2018), as well as on the monitoring of a return...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the Russian Federation
The primary objective of the visit was to examine the progress made as regards the implementation of previous CPT recommendations concerning the situation of patients in civil and forensic psychiatric hospitals and of residents of social care homes (psycho-neurological boarding homes). In the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the United Kingdom, focusing on police and prisons in Scotland
The primary purpose of the visit was to examine the situation in police and prison establishments in Scotland and to assess the progress made since the CPT’s previous visit in 2012. During the visit the delegation examined the situation of prisoners in various Scottish prisons, and paid specific...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes Bulgarian response to the report on the 2017 visit
In the report the CPT had made recommendations on treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and penitentiary establishments, also the treatment, conditions and legal safeguards offered to psychiatric patients, residents of social care institutions, as well as immigration...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the Czech Republic
The visit was an opportunity to assess progress made in the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations following the previous visit. In this context, the delegation paid particular attention to the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their liberty by the police and...
Anti-torture Committee publishes report on periodic visit to Croatia focusing on police, prisons and psychiatry
The report reviews the treatment of persons detained by the police, the situation of inmates held in three county prisons (i.e. Zagreb, Split and Osijek) and the Zagreb Prison Hospital as well as the treatment of juveniles deprived of their liberty under criminal legislation. The situation of...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Georgia
During the visit, the delegation assessed progress made in the implementation of the recommendations made by the CPT following the previous visit in 2014. In this context, the delegation paid particular attention to the treatment of persons in police custody and the situation of prisoners in...
Hungary: anti-torture Committee observed decent conditions in transit zones but criticises treatment of irregular migrants when ‘pushed back’ to Serbia
The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of foreigners detained under aliens legislation. To this end, the delegation visited two transit zones at Röszke and Tompa situated on the border with Serbia and several other establishments, and, on the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee carries out visit to Spain, focusing on prison and police establishments in Catalonia
The purpose of the visit was to examine the situation in police and prison establishments in the autonomous community of Catalonia and to assess the progress made since the CPT’s previous visits to this region in 2011 and 2012. To this end, the CPT’s delegation visited Barcelona Women's Prison...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Ukraine
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Ukrainian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the CPT after previous visits. In particular, attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and prisoners. The...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee monitors treatment of foreign nationals during return flight from Germany to Afghanistan
The purpose of the visit was to examine the treatment of foreign nationals during a national return operation by air from Germany coordinated by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). To this end, the CPT’s delegation monitored a charter flight from Munich (Germany) to Kabul...
United Nations and Council of Europe torture prevention bodies to strengthen cooperation
Article 31 of the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), which encourages the SPT and preventive bodies established under regional conventions such as the CPT to consult and cooperate with a view to...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Poland
During the visit, the CPT’s delegation assessed progress made since previous visits and the extent to which the Committee’s recommendations had been implemented. Particular attention was paid to the treatment of persons in police custody, foreign nationals detained in Border Guard establishments,...
Azerbaijan: torture, impunity and corruption highlighted in new anti-torture committee publications
The CPT’s overall impression of the situation in Azerbaijan is that torture and other forms of physical ill-treatment by the police and other law enforcement agencies, corruption in the whole law enforcement system and impunity remain systemic and endemic. The Committee’s reports contain detailed...
CPT holds its July 2018 plenary meeting
During this meeting, the Committee adopted the reports on its periodic visits to Ukraine (December 2017), Andorra (January/February 2018) and Romania (February 2018), and on its ad hoc visit to Greece (April 2018). These reports will be sent in due course to the respective authorities. In...
Joint statement on the occasion of the “United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture”
Today, on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, all anti-torture mechanisms of the United Nations and regional mechanisms from Africa, Europe and the Americas stand together to reiterate that torture can never be justified, not even as a measure of last resort....
CPT factsheet on transport of detainees
Whatever the grounds for transferring persons deprived of their liberty from a place of detention to another place (e.g. from a police station to a prison, from a prison to another prison, a courthouse or a hospital, or from a border point of entry to an immigration detention centre), the CPT...
In memoriam Vassilis Karydis
Mr Karydis was Professor of Criminological Sciences and Immigration Policy at the Department of Social and Educational Policy, University of the Peloponnese and former Deputy Ombudsman and Head of the NPM (National Preventive Mechanism) at the Greek Ombudsman’s Office. Elected in respect of...
Anti-torture Committee publishes critical report on police ill-treatment in Serbia and the outdated treatment of remand prisoners
The report highlights that a significant number of allegations of physical ill-treatment of detained persons by police officers were received by the CPT’s delegation in particular in larger urban areas of the country (i.e. Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad). The physical ill-treatment alleged consisted...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes response of the Belgian authorities
The response provides information on the manner in which the Belgian authorities are implementing the recommendations made in the CPT's report notably in relation to the treatment of prisoners, conditions of detention in prisons and the provision of care to psychiatric internees. In addition, it...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits prisons in Moldova
The purpose of the visit was to assess progress made in implementing the Committee’s previous recommendations concerning the situation in prison establishments. To this end, the CPT’s delegation visited Prison No. 13 in Chișinău, Prison No. 10 for juveniles in Goian and Prison No. 6 in Soroca. In...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Norway
During the visit, the delegation assessed progress made in the implementation of the recommendations made by the CPT following the previous visit in 2011. In this context, the delegation paid particular attention to the safeguards against ill-treatment and the detention conditions of persons in...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee holds high-level talks in Azerbaijan
The objective of the talks, which took place on 31 May and 1 June 2018, was to discuss the state of co-operation between the CPT and the Azerbaijani authorities and, in particular, the implementation of the CPT’s long-standing recommendations concerning law enforcement agencies and prisons,...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes preliminary observations after its visit to immigration detention and psychiatric establishments in Greece
The focus of the visit was two-fold: to look into the treatment, living conditions and safeguards offered to civil and forensic patients in psychiatric establishments; and to examine the situation of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under aliens’ legislation. At the end of the visit,...
Denmark agrees to automatic publication of reports by Council of Europe anti-torture Committee
Commenting on this decision, Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the CPT, stated the following: “Authorising the timely publication of visit reports is indicative of the strength of commitment to the implementation of the CPT’s recommendations. The decision of the Danish Government to adopt an...
Albania: Anti-torture committee concludes that the treatment of persons detained by the police has improved, but conditions of forensic psychiatric patients remain unacceptable
The vast majority of detained persons interviewed by the CPT’s delegation indicated that they had been treated correctly by the police, and the delegation received only a small number of allegations of recent physical ill-treatment by police officers (such as excessive use of force at the time of...
Bulgaria: Anti-torture committee says conditions in social care institutions could be described as inhuman and degrading; the situation in penitentiary establishments generally improved
Regarding the treatment of persons in police custody, the Committee concludes that, in some respects, the findings of the 2017 visit suggest that there might have been a slight improvement since the previous visit to Bulgaria in 2015, especially as regards the severity of alleged ill-treatment....
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Lithuania
The main objective of the visit was to examine the progress made as regards the implementation of previous CPT recommendations concerning conditions of detention in penitentiary establishments. In the course of the visit, the delegation had consultations with Arūnas Kazlauskas, Chancellor of the...
Anti-torture Committee publishes report on its visit to Cyprus
During its February 2017 visit to the country, the CPT received a number of credible allegations of physical and/or psychological ill-treatment of detained persons (including juveniles) by police officers – notably at Limassol and Paphos Central Police Stations. The alleged ill-treatment...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits immigration detention and psychiatric establishments in Greece
The purpose of the visit was twofold. One was to examine the situation of foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under aliens’ legislation and to determine whether their situation since the previous visits in 2016 had improved. To this end, the delegation visited several pre-departure...
Anti-torture committee: effective complaints mechanisms should be available to detainees across Europe
This is a fundamental safeguard against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, emphasises the Council of Europe´s anti-torture committee (CPT) in its annual report, published today. On a number of occasions during its country visits, the CPT has found that complaints mechanisms did not exist...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits psychiatric hospitals and social welfare institutions in Turkey
The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and living conditions of patients/residents in psychiatric hospitals and social welfare institutions. In addition, the CPT’s delegation looked into the legal safeguards related to involuntary placement procedures and their...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee announces visits to eight states in 2019
The Committee intends to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the following countries: Armenia Bosnia and Herzegovina Denmark France Greece Iceland Ireland “The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” Persons in possession of information concerning deprivation of liberty...
Anti-torture Committee publishes report on its visit to Italian “hotspots” and removal centres
At the outset, the CPT fully recognises the significant efforts invested by the Italian authorities to manage the large-scale arrivals by sea, but it stresses the need for a co-ordinated European approach to address this phenomenon. The report highlights that in the three “hotspots” visited the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the Slovak Republic
During the visit, the CPT’s delegation assessed progress made in the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations following the previous visit. In this context, the delegation paid particular attention to the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their liberty by the...
CPT President calls on States to prevent ill-treatment during police custody
Speaking at the Danish Chairmanship Seminar on combatting torture in Copenhagen, the President of the CPT stressed the importance of creating a police culture that sees ill-treatment as unprofessional. He also stated that the CPT had documented instances of alleged torture in nearly a quarter of...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Imralı Prison (Turkey)
The report says that, compared to the CPT’s previous visit in January 2013, material conditions of detention have been significantly improved for Abdullah Öcalan and remain satisfactory for the three other inmates. Furthermore, the delegation reported a favourable impression of the...
CPT President speaks about prison conditions at Committee of Ministers’ thematic debate and meets Belgian Justice Minister
This debate was organised in the context of the current Committee of Ministers’ quarterly meeting dedicated to the supervision of the implementation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights. “The implementation of the CPT’s recommendations may have a major positive impact on the...
CPT holds its March 2018 plenary meeting
During this meeting, the Committee adopted the reports on its periodic visits to Bulgaria (September/October 2017), Estonia (September/October 2017) and Montenegro (October 2017), and on its ad hoc visits to the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) (August/September 2017), Hungary (October 2017),...
Belgium: Anti-torture committee calls for improved prison conditions, better care for psychiatric internees and stronger action against police brutality
In its report, the Committee referred to the public statement it had felt obliged to make in July 2017, calling on the authorities and all stakeholders to face up to their responsibilities and quickly find a solution for introducing a minimum service in prison establishments guaranteeing...
Anti-torture committee urges Portugal to tackle police ill-treatment and the poor treatment of prisoners
During its 2016 periodic visit to the country, the CPT’s delegation received a considerable number of credible allegations of ill-treatment at the time of apprehension and during police custody. The alleged ill-treatment consisted primarily of slaps, punches and kicks to the body and head as...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Romania
The visit was an opportunity for the CPT’s delegation to review the measures taken by the Romanian authorities to implement the recommendations made by the Committee after its 2014 visit. To this end, the main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention in five...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Andorra
During the visit, the delegation examined the treatment of persons detained by the police, as well as the situation of prisoners held in the country’s sole prison, and of involuntary psychiatric patients. In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with Xavier Espot, Minister of...
CPT publishes report on Lithuania
The 2016 periodic visit to the country confirmed the positive conclusion reached by the CPT during previous visits, namely, that the majority of persons detained by the police are treated in a correct manner. The CPT, however, reiterates its long-standing recommendation to guarantee that the...
CPT factsheet on women in prison
Drawing from observations, interviews and other fact-finding during its visits since 1990, the CPT has gradually developed detailed standards on the treatment of women in prison. They are described in this new factsheet, prepared by the CPT’s Secretariat. The factsheet covers the following...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes response of the UK authorities
The response addresses the numerous recommendations made in the CPT's report notably in relation to the spiralling violence and lack of safety in prisons and the inadequate safeguards to protect patients in mental health settings. The response also provides information on the action taken by the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Ukraine
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Ukrainian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. In particular, attention was paid to the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and prisoners....
Preventing torture in Europe
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