CPT - European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Introduction

The international Community recognizes that human dignity, liberty and equality must be unconditionally protected.

From this point of view, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 is an important document designed to promote the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Before the Chart, human rights were based upon the relationship between the individual and the State and, consequently, the international law could not be invoked because of the State sovereignty.

On the contrary, in the Universal Declaration the human rights are recognised regardless of the “no-intervention” principle because they belong to the individual and for this reason their protection cannot be limited by the State borders.

Over time, many international documents concerning human rights have been adopted.

In Europe, for example, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was most relevant adopted by the Council of Europe in 1950 which set up the European Court of Human Rights in order to ascertain the violations of  human rights and fundamental freedoms defined by the Convention. The European Court is able to condemn the State responsible for such violations. However, the Court may receive applications from any person, non-governmental organisation or group of individual and from a State claiming a violation of the rights set forth in the Convention and may only deal with the matter after all domestic remedies have been exhausted. Such a system is efficient and appropriate in order to protect the human rights.

Moreover, in recent years, the Council of Europe has recognised the need to “prevent” violations of human rights. In this context, a specific mention is due to the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It provides that «No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment». This article inspired the drafting of the 1987 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in order to prevent the ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by a public authority.

The Convention does not actually contain a definition of the concepts of «torture» or «inhuman or degrading treatment», rather, it provides a non-judicial preventive machinery to protect detainees. It is based on a system of visits by delegations of the Committee, assisted by members of its Secretariat that forms part of the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Human Rights.

CPT’s members: independent experts

The CPT’s members are independent and impartial experts from a variety of backgrounds. They’re for example lawers, medical doctors and specialists in prison or police affairs, matters, elected for a four-year term (renewable twice) by the Committee of Ministers, the Council of Europe’s decision-making body. One member may be elected in respect of each Contracting State.

A non-judicial preventing machinery

The task of ensuring compliance with the European Convention of Human Rights was initially entrusted to the European Commission and European Court of Human Rights – two bodies, which were merged into a single Court in 1998. The European Court of Human Rights examines complaints lodged by individuals, and occasionally by States; the end result is a legally binding judgement as to whether or not a state has violated its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Over time, it became apparent that reliance on a reactive judicial mechanism was not sufficient to ensure compliance with the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Consequently, a proactive non-judicial mechanism based on visits to places of deprivation of liberty was set up. To date, the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has been ratified by 44 member States of the Council of Europe.

A system of visits

The CPT visits all types of places of detention – e.g. prisons and juvenile detention centres, police stations, army barracks, holding centres for immigration detainees and psychiatric hospitals – to find out how detainees are treated and, if necessary, to recommend improvements to States. However, the CPT is not empowered to deal with individual applications, as these are the responsibility of the European Court of Human Rights.

CPT delegations visit Contracting States periodically but may organise additional «ad hoc» visits if necessary. Visits usually last for one or two weeks.      The Committee must notify the State concerned but need not specify the period between notification and the actual visit, which, in exceptional circumstances, may be carried out immediately after notification. Governments’objections to the time or place of a visit can only be justified on grounds of national defence, public safety, serious disorder, the medical condition of a person or that urgent interrogation relating to a serious crime is in progress. In such cases the State must immediately take steps to enable the Committee to visit as soon as possible.

The guidelines of co-operation and confidentiality

During the visits, the CPT has  unlimited access to places of detention and the right to move inside such places without restriction. They interview persons deprived of their liberty in private and communicate freely with anyone who can provide information. Following a visit, the CPT prepares a report, which usually includes recommendations and is a basis for dialogue with the State concerned. The reports are adopted during plenary sessions of the Committee.

The Committee carries out its task in compliance with two guiding principles: co-operation and confidentiality. Co-operation with the national authorities is at the heart of the Convention since the aim is to protect detainees rather than to condemn States for abuses. Therefore, the Committee meets in private and its reports are strictly confidential. It follows that whatever CPT discovers in the course of a visit will not feature in the following day’s newspaper headlines.

Nevertheless, if a country refuses to co-operate or fails to improve the situation in the light of the Committee’s recommendations, the Committee may decide to make a public statement. This is an exceptional competence, which has been used only three times to date. A State may itself request publication of the Committee’s report, together with its comments. In addition, the CPT draws up a general report on its activities every year, which is made public. There are two amending protocols to the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Punishment. The Protocol  n. 1, which entered into force on 1 march 2002, empowers the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to invite any non-members State of the Organisation to accede to the Convention. The second protocol introduces technical changes to the election of CPT members. 

Over its years of activity in the field, the CPT has developed standards relating to the treatment of person deprived of their liberty. These standards have been published in the brochure “The CPT standards”.

The recent visits of the Council of Europe Anti- Torture Committee

As to the recent visits of CPT, a specific mention should be of the 2002 programme of periodic visits because the CPT delegation has carried out the first visits to Armenia and Azerbaijan, and of the 2003 programme marked by the first visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The CPT welcomes the very good level of co-operation received by its visiting delegations in each of these countries. Undoubtedly, such a co-operation have been achieved thanks to two-day seminars, prior to the visits, in Baku, Sarajevo and Yerevan concerning the CPT’s mandate and activities.

·        Periodic visits in 2002 and, to date, in 2003

2002 – Denmark; the Netherlands (Kingdom in Europe and Netherlands Antilles); Bulgaria; the Czech Republic; Ireland; Romania; Latvia; Armenia; “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”; Azerbaijan; Ukraine;

2003 – Sweden; Luxembourg; Bosnia and Herzegovina; the United Kingdom; Spain. (Further periodic visits will be carried out in 2003 to the following countries, listed in alphabetical order: Croatia; Estonia; Finland; Georgia; Portugal.)

·        Ad hoc visits carried out by the CPT in 2002 and 2003

Albania; France (two visits); Hungary; Moldova; Portugal; Romania; Russia (four visits); “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”; Turkey (three visits); and the United Kingdom.

Most of these visits were organised in order to verify the implementation in practice of recommendations previously made by the CPT concerning issues of particular importance and others were triggered by new developments in areas covered by the Committee’s mandate or by reports received concerning the situation of persons deprived of their liberty.

The CPT visits United Kingdom in 2003

During the visit carried out to the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man from 12 to 23 May 2003, the Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee delegation examined prison overcrowding in England[1] and reviewed developments concerning detention by the police and in prison in Scotland[2] and the Isle of Man. It also visited detention facilities for children in Scotland and the Isle of Man[3] and a psychiatric establishment in Scotland.

The CPT visits Portugal in 2003

The Council of Europe’s Anti-Torture Committee recently carried out a nine-day visit to Portugal. The visit began on 22 July 2003. This visit was carried out by for members of CPT:

Antoni Aleix Camp, head of the delegation, Andorran; Ioanna Babassika, Greek; Mario Benedettini, San Marinese; Mauro Palma, Italian and they were supported by two members of CPT’s Secretariat (Hanne Juncher and Cyrille Orizet) and assisted by a medical doctor, a psychiatrist.

The main purpose of the european delegation was to exam the treatment of persons detained by law enforcement agencies an the fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment offered to such persons. It also review the conditions of detention in prison, including in Porto Central Prison, visited for fifth time by the CPT.

In fact, it carried out the last visits to Porto Central Prison from 17 to 20 December and had previously visited Oporto Prison in May 1995, October 1996 and April 1999. On those occasions, the prison was overcrowded and prisoner’s living areas were unhygienic, there was a high level of inter-prisoner intimidation, violence, drugs were widely available and staffing levels on the wings were inadequate.

Following the 1999 visit, the Portuguese authorities informed the CPT of action taken in the light of the CPT’s recommendations and invited the Committee to revisit the establishment. During the 2003 visit, the delegation examined for the first time the treatment of patients in a penitentiary psychiatric hospital.

The CPT visits Spain in 2003

The delegation of Council of Europe Anti-Torture has recently visited the Spain. The visit began on 22 July and concluded after eleven-days. The visit was carried out by six members of the CPT[4] and  two members of the CPT’s Secretariat and assisted by an expert in international law.

During the visit, the delegation concentrated on the fundamental safeguards offered to persons deprived of their liberty by law enforcement agencies[5] and on treatment of foreign nationals detained by the national police and the civil guard under aliens legislation. The CPT also reviewed the treatment of detainees in special prisons because they are considered to be “dangerous” or “unsuited to an ordinary prison system” and examined the situation of detainees in penitentiary psychiatric hospitals[6].