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 Sweden from 18 to 29 January 2021. It was the Committee's sixth periodic visit to the country.
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Swedish authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. For this purpose, the delegation visited six police detention facilities (in Avesta, Malmö, Stockholm – Norrmalm, Södermalm and Solna – and Ystad), two migration detention centres (in Åstorp and Ljungbyhed), three remand prisons (in Helsingborg, Trelleborg and Ystad, the first two mainly accommodating remand prisoners subjected to court-imposed restrictions on association and contact with the outside world), three psychiatric establishments (one for civil involuntary patients – North Stockholm Psychiatric Clinic – and regional forensic clinics in Karsudden and Sala) and two so-called LVU/LSU establishments for young persons (Bärby Home for Young Persons in Uppsala and Sundbo Home for Young Persons in Fagersta).
The delegation inter alia met Sweden’s four Parliamentary Ombudsmen (Elisabeth Rynning, Per Lennerbrant, Thomas Norling and Katarina Påhlsson) and staff of the OPCAT Unit (National Preventive Mechanism). At the end of the visit, the delegation presented its preliminary observations to Morgan Johansson, Minister for Justice and Migration.
The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:
- Jari Pirjola,Head of delegation
- Vincent Delbos
- Ömer Müslümanoğlu
- Elsa Bára Traustadóttir
- Chila Van Der Bas.
They were supported by Borys Wódz, Head of Division, and Dalia Žukauskienė of the CPT's Secretariat, and assisted by an expert: Olivera Vulić, psychiatrist, former Chief of the Centre for Mental Health in Podgorica, Montenegro.
