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Doc. 8884
3 November 2000
Conditions of detention in Council of Europe member states
Motion for a recommendation
presented by Mrs Wohlwend and others
This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it |
1. The Assembly recalls its Recommendation 1257 (1995) on the conditions of detention in Council of Europe member states. In this recommendation, the Assembly expressed its concern over the sharp rise in the prison population in Europe, and the resulting overcrowding, and deterioration of conditions of detention.
2. Five years later, the situation has deteriorated further. The augmentation of penalty scales and longer prison sentences imposed by the courts have led to overcrowding in some prisons. Conditions in pre-trial detention centres are nothing short of appalling in many member states, since custody pending trial is ordered on an increasingly large scale and investigations and court proceedings – and thus also pre-trial detention – are taking longer and longer (often due to case overload). In some states, conditions in pre-trial detention centres amount to inhuman and degrading treatment, opening the way for possibly thousands of individual applications to the European Court of Human Rights under Article 3 of the European Convention for Human Rights.
3. The Assembly is convinced that inhuman and degrading conditions of detention should not be dealt with (years later) on a case-by-case judicial basis, but should be redressed immediately as a matter of course by the authorities of the states concerned. When conditions get so bad that detainees sign confessions for crimes they did not commit just to be able to be transferred from a pre-trial detention centre to a prison, when healthy detainees leave prison with open and sometimes incurable tuberculosis, when detainees are bullied (sometimes to death) by fellow inmates, prompt action has to be taken by the authorities to change the system.
4. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers invite member states to:
i. review the conditions of detention in their country, and take prompt action to rectify any shortcomings;
ii. ensure that pre-trial detention is ordered only in the most serious cases, and that the length of this detention is kept to an absolute minimum;
iii. reduce recourse to prison sentences, and keep them as short as possible, through the increased imposition of non-custodial sentences and the granting of conditional release (parole), amnesties and pardons;
iv. provide an effective and independent complaint mechanism for detainees, both in pre-trial detention and in prisons, so that complaints about ill-treatment or degrading conditions of detention can be made in confidence, and ensure that these complaints are treated as a matter of the highest priority and the problems rectified without delay; this complaint mechanism should not be linked in any way with the prosecuting authorities;
v. ensure that detainees, both in pre-trial detention and in prisons, have access to a lawyer if they so wish.
5. The Assembly furthermore recommends that the Committee of Ministers:
i. update the European prison rules, in particular adding a catalogue of the rights of a prisoner;
ii. revive the work on a draft protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the rights of detained persons and bring it to a rapid conclusion.
Signed : 1
Wohlwend, Liechtenstein, EPP/CD
Bindig, Germany, SOC
Bruce, United Kingdom, LDR
Clerfayt, Belgium, LDR
Err, Luxembourg, SOC
Holovaty, Ukraine, LDR
Jaskiernia, Poland, SOC
Jurgens, Netherlands, SOC
Kresak, Slovakia, LDR
McNamara, United Kingdom, SOC
Mota Amaral, Portugal, EPP/CD
Nabholz–Haidegger, Switzerland, LDR
Svoboda, Czech Republic, EPP/CD
1 SOC: Socialist Group
EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
EDG: European Democratic Group
LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group
UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
NR: not registered in a group