2019 News
The CPT visits France
The delegation examined the conditions of detention in three remand prisons where overcrowding was a problem. It carefully observed the regime applied to specific categories of sentenced persons, including those placed in units for “radicalised” detainees. Attention was also paid to the situation...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee carries out visit to North Macedonia
During the visit, the delegation assessed the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their liberty by the police and examined the situation of prisoners (including juveniles) in five prison establishments. In this regard, particular attention was paid to the measures taken by...
The CPT visits Armenia
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Armenian authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. In this connection, particular attention was paid to the safeguards against ill-treatment of persons in police custody and...
The CPT visits Portugal
The purpose of the visit was to follow up on the recommendations made by the CPT in its report on the 2016 periodic visit to Portugal regarding police and prison matters. To this end, the CPT’s delegation examined the treatment of persons arrested and detained by the Judicial Police, Public...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes the response of the Czech authorities to the report on the 2018 visit
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published today the response of the Czech authorities to the report on the Committee’s sixth periodic visit to the Czech Republic, which took place from 2 to 11 October 2018....
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee holds talks in Greece
The main objective of the talks was to discuss the action being taken by the recently elected Greek Government to address the long-standing concerns of the Committee regarding prison, police and immigration detention issues. In particular, the need to tackle the crisis in the prison system and to...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes Georgian response to the report on the 2018 visit
In the report the CPT had made recommendations on the treatment of persons in police custody, prisoners (in particular those in high-risk and semi-open prisons as well as juveniles), psychiatric patients and immigration detainees. The response of the Georgian authorities has been made public at...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Estonia
The main objective of the visit was to assess the progress made since the CPT’s previous visit in 2012. In this context, particular attention was paid to the situation of persons in police custody and remand prisoners held in police and prison establishments. For the first time in the country,...
100th session: the CPT holds its November 2019 plenary meeting
On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the CPT held a high-level conference, co-organised with the Association for the prevention of torture (APT), on the theme of “implementing safeguards in the first hours of police custody” on the afternoon of the 4th November. A ceremony marking the 30th...
30th anniversary of the CPT: Conference and ceremony
In the afternoon, a high-level conference co-organised with the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and with the support of the OSCE-ODHIR, attracted experts from all 47 Council of Europe members states and beyond. After a keynote speech by Silvia Casale (Former CPT President and...
#CPT30: The CPT celebrates its 30th anniversary
The conference is being co-organised with the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and will be followed by a ceremony. Both the conference and ceremony will be transmitted via live webcast. Participants are invited to tweet using the hashtag #CPT30 Conference programme Ceremony Link...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the United Kingdom
The CPT’s delegation carried out a targeted follow-up visit to examine certain issues of concern to the Committee that were raised in its report on the 2018 visit to Scotland. Notably, the visit focussed on the use of segregation and mental health care for women prisoners. Issues of overcrowding...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the Russian Federation
In the course of the visit, the delegation met with Mikhail Galperin, Deputy Minister of Justice, and Valery Boyarinev, Deputy Director of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), as well as with senior officials from the Ministry of Justice, the FSIN, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on the United Kingdom, focusing on police and prisons in Scotland
The 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; specific attention was paid to inmates in segregation, in remand, women prisoners generally and to overall healthcare...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Ireland
The main objective of the visit was to review the progress in the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations since its previous visit in 2014 in relation to prison matters, notably as regards the treatment of prisoners on restricted regimes and older persons in prison as well as the...
“Eradicating torture in Europe”: Council of Europe anti-torture Committee holds exchange of views with members of the Parliamentary Assembly
In his opening remarks, Mykola Gnatovskyy highlighted major challenges faced by the CPT throughout Europe and summarised key issues raised in its most recent annual report, including its relations with the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT), as well as the concept of...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Poland
The objective of the visit was to review the implementation of the CPT's long-standing recommendations concerning the treatment of persons in police custody. For this purpose, the CPT's delegation spoke with persons in police custody and recently arrived remand prisoners in several police...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on 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 psycho-neurological boarding homes (PNIs). The main conclusions of...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Albania
During its visit, the CPT examined the treatment and conditions of detention of persons in police custody and of inmates in several prison establishments, as well as the situation of civil and forensic psychiatric patients. In addition, the CPT’s delegation visited, for the first time in Albania,...
New online course on CPT Standards published on the HELP Platform
Preventing ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty requires that all actors involved are properly trained and well equipped to prevent or address unacceptable treatment and conditions. The purpose of the Council of Europe HELP course on CPT standards is to familiarise users with the...
Open call for expressions of interest to enlarge the pool of experts to assist CPT delegations on visits
The CPT is looking for Experts with recognised competence in one or more of the following fields of activities, preferably with proven experience in visiting places of deprivation of liberty: Police matters: law enforcement official, specialised judge, prosecutor or other professional with proven...
The CPT publishes report on Bulgaria
The objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and conditions of detention of foreign nationals detained under aliens legislation. The main conclusions of the CPT are set out in the executive summary of the report. In their response, the Bulgarian authorities provide information on the...
CPT holds its July 2019 plenary meeting
During this meeting, the Committee adopted the reports on its periodic visits to Albania (November 2018), Hungary (November 2018) and Greece (March/April 2019), and to the ad hoc visits to France (November 2018) and Italy (March 2019). These reports will be sent in due course to the respective...
CPT President tells the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers that more should be done to make the European continent a torture-free zone
“Torture needs to be prevented, but it still needs to be combated in some parts of Europe”, said Mr Gnatovskyy. “Today’s numerous challenges are such that all of us, representatives of governments, the CPT and all other torture prevention partners need to show the strongest determination in...
The CPT publishes report on the Czech Republic
During the visit, the Committee’s delegation assessed the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their liberty by the police and examined the situation in several prisons and in a psychiatric hospital, as well as in a social care home. Particular attention was paid during the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes Norwegian response to the report on the 2018 visit
The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published today the response of the Norwegian authorities to the report on the Committee’s periodic visit to Norway, carried out in May/June 2018. The response has been made...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Bosnia and Herzegovina
During the visit, the delegation assessed the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their liberty by the police and examined the situation of prisoners in three prisons. Further, it visited two psychiatric establishments and a social care home. Particular attention was paid...
The CPT publishes report on Lithuania
The main objective of the visit was to examine the progress made as regards the implementation of previous CPT recommendations, in particular those concerning conditions of detention in establishments under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice. The main conclusions of the CPT are set out...
United Nations and Council of Europe torture prevention bodies work on more effective concerted action
The main objective of these consultations was to identify practical means of reinforcing complementarity and subsidiarity to reflect the SPT’s and CPT’s respective strengths and added values in the Council of Europe area, avoiding duplication and increasing synergies in accordance with the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on the Slovak Republic
The main objective of the visit was to examine the measures taken by the Slovak authorities to implement various recommendations made by the Committee after previous visits. In this context, particular attention was paid to the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons deprived of their...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee exchanges views with EU high officials
On Friday 7 June, Mykola Gnatovskyy (President of the CPT), Mark Kelly (1st Vice-President), together with the Executive Secretary, Régis Brillat, had meetings with the following high-ranking officials of the EU: Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Representative for Human Rights Simon Mordue, Deputy...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee holds high-level talks in the United Kingdom
The objective was to discuss, at the highest political level, the findings of the CPT’s recent visit to the United Kingdom from 13 to 23 May, notably issues concerning violence, segregation, the use of force and means of restraint in local male prisons and juvenile detention establishments. The...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Iceland
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Icelandic 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...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits the United Kingdom
During the visit the delegation examined the situation of inmates held in various prisons and juvenile detention institutions across England. In addition to following up on the CPT’s findings from the previous visit to the United Kingdom in 2016, it paid specific attention to issues concerning...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Turkey
The main objective of the visit was to examine the treatment and safeguards afforded to persons detained by law enforcement agencies. To this end, the CPT’s delegation interviewed hundreds of persons who were or had recently been held in police custody in the Ankara, Diyarbakır, Istanbul and...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on 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...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee says Germany needs to ensure better treatment of foreign nationals being removed by air
The report concerns the monitoring of a return flight of Afghan nationals from Munich to Kabul (Afghanistan) on 14 August 2018, carried out under the authority of the German Federal Police and in co-operation with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). The CPT’s delegation observed...
Police should improve interviewing practices to prevent ill-treatment, says Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee
In its annual report, the CPT indicates that in some countries police interviewing is still aimed at obtaining confessions, thus increasing the risk of ill-treatment, whereas it should be focused on obtaining accurate and reliable information about matters under investigation. The Committee notes...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Denmark
The main objective of the visit was to review the measures taken by the Danish authorities in response to the recommendations made by the Committee after its previous visit in 2014. To this end, particular attention was paid to the legal safeguards against police ill-treatment as well as to the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on visit to Andorra
The report examines the treatment and conditions of detention of persons deprived of their liberty by police forces and prisoners in the only penitentiary establishment in the country, as well as care of psychiatric patients in a closed unit. The response of the Andorran authorities to the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits Ukraine
The purpose of the visit was to examine the treatment of residents of Psycho-neurological Institutions (“Internats”) and, in this context, to assess the progress made as regards the implementation of previous CPT’s recommendations. For this purpose, the CPT's delegation visited the “Internat” in...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee holds high-level talks in Lithuania
The objective of the talks, which took place in Vilnius on 1 April 2019, was to discuss the implementation of the CPT’s recommendations concerning the prison system, as set out most recently in the report on the Committee’s ad hoc visit to Lithuania in April 2018. The CPT’s representatives were...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee visits prisons and police establishments in Greece
The main objective of the visit was to review the progress in the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations since its previous visits in 2013 and 2015 in relation to prison matters, notably in respect of overcrowding, inter-prisoner violence, staffing levels, material conditions and...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee announces periodic visits to eight states in 2020
The Committee intends to examine the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the following countries: Azerbaijan Finland Germany Republic of Moldova Monaco Serbia Spain Sweden Persons in possession of information concerning deprivation of liberty in any of these countries which they...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee carries out visit to Italy, focusing on prison establishments
The purpose of the visit was to examine the situation of prisoners placed under high and maximum security regime (the so-called “41-bis regime”) as well as various “isolation” and segregation measures (such as court-imposed isolation to life-sentenced prisoners). The delegation also reviewed the...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes Ukrainian 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...
The CPT publishes response of the Moldovan authorities
The response has been made public under an automatic publication procedure introduced by the Moldovan authorities in 2011.1 The CPT’s report on the June 2018 visit was published on 13 December 2018. Read the response Read the CPT's report The CPT and the Republic of Moldova 1 According to this...
Romania: Council of Europe anti-torture committee raises concerns over abuse of prisoners by staff, inter-prisoner violence and allegations of police ill-treatment
The report states that a considerable number of allegations of physical ill-treatment of prisoners by prison staff were received, notably by members of the masked intervention groups based in four of the five prisons visited. The situation was particularly alarming at Galaţi Prison where a...
CPT President speaks about the effectiveness of investigations into police ill-treatment at Committee of Ministers’ thematic debate
“If torture and other forms of ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by public officials remain unchallenged by the criminal justice system, such conduct can easily become an accepted practice within the state services concerned”, Mykola Gnatovskyy said. “Genuine endeavours to meet...
CPT holds its March 2019 plenary meeting
During this meeting, the Committee adopted the reports on its periodic visits to Georgia (September 2018) and the Czech Republic (October 2018), and on its ad hoc visits to Spain (September 2018), the United Kingdom (October 2018), the Russian Federation (October 2018) and Bulgaria (December...
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee urges the Russian Federation to carry out effective investigations into allegations of torture in the Northern Caucasian region
The public statement is made in application of Article 10 (2) of the European Convention on the Prevention of Torture which provides that the Committee itself may issue a public statement if a Party to the Convention “fails to co-operate or refuses to improve the situation in the light of the...
Heads of Council of Europe anti-torture and anti-corruption bodies call on member states to take decisive action against torture and corruption
In a joint statement issued at the 40th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Mykola Gnatovskyy, President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), and Marin Mrčela, President of the Group of States against...
Greece: Council of Europe anti-torture committee calls for the situation of psychiatric patients to be improved, while criticising once again the poor treatment of immigration detainees
The report highlights the systemic overcrowding in three of the five psychiatric establishments visited (Evangelismos, Gennimatas and Sotiria), with patients at Evangelismos being accommodated in the corridors. In all five hospitals visited, the CPT is critical of the lack of staff and...
Anti-torture Committee publishes report on periodic visit to Montenegro focusing on police, prisons, psychiatry and social welfare establishments
Despite some overall improvement in the treatment of persons detained by the police since the 2013 visit, the CPT received a significant number of allegations of physical ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by police officers. The alleged ill-treatment consisted of punches, slaps,...
CPT holds high-level talks in Bulgaria
The main objective was to discuss the measures taken by the Bulgarian authorities to implement the CPT’s recommendations set out in the report on the CPT’s 2017 visit to Bulgaria and, more generally, to advance the on-going dialogue between the Committee and the Bulgarian authorities. Among the...
Norway should improve the situation for prisoners in solitary confinement
In the different establishments visited, all the persons interviewed by the CPT’s delegation stated that they had been treated correctly by staff. Moreover, material conditions were generally of a high standard. As regards the police, the CPT attaches particular importance to the fundamental...
Preventing torture in Europe
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