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Since the early 2000s, increased intervention by Council of Europe (CoE) bodies has led to the definition of a legal status for prisoners, increasingly precise obligations for states to guarantee their fundamental rights, and guidance on prison and penal policy. Similarly, since 2016, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) has considered systemic deficiencies in prison conditions as an obstacle to judicial cooperation between EU member states.
Yet European prison systems continue to suffer from structural problems: prison overcrowding remains acute in more than a quarter of CoE countries, and the average European incarceration rate rose in 2023 for the first time in a decade.
Based on these observations, the European Prison Litigation Network and its partners have conducted a study in nine countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania) to assess the effectiveness of European interventions in addressing systemic problems in prison systems.
- What penological model emerges from the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights and the guidance provided by other bodies of the Council of Europe to Member States?
- What is the impact of European intervention on national penal and prison policies?
- Could greater synergies between the CoE and the EU offer stronger levers of reform at national level to tackle structural problems in prisons?
- Will the control that the EU intends to exercise over prison and judicial reform in EU candidate countries such as Ukraine or Moldova strengthen the Union’s demands for Member States overall in the long term?
This conference brings together representatives of European and national institutions involved in penal and prison policy, academics, and representatives of civil society to discuss the key challenges for tackling structural problems in prisons and for the effective implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in European prisons.
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WITH SPEAKERS FROM EUROPEAN AND NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, ACADEMIA, AND CIVIL SOCIETY, INCLUDING
Marc Nève President of the EPLN, President of the CCSP (Belgian NPM for Prisons), former Vice-President of the CPT
Ioulietta Bisiouli Director of the EIN
Kateřina Šimáčková ECtHR Judge
Mykola Gnatovskyy ECtHR Judge, former President of the CPT
Gilberto Felici ECtHR Judge
Martin Mühleck European Commission, DG NEAR
Simon Creighton Vice-President of the EPLN, Solicitor specialising in prison law and tribunal judge with expertise in mental health issues
Georgiana Gheorghe Executive Director of APADOR-CH
Zsófia Moldova Director of the Justice Programme, Hungarian Helsinki Committee
Oleh Tsvilyi Former prisoner, Head of Protection for Prisoners of Ukraine
Annie Kensey, CESDIP
Sonja Snacken, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Julia Burchett, Université Libre de Bruxelles
As well as many other speakers…
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Presentations
Read our analysis of the Committee of Ministers’ recommendation on structural prison overcrowding
PANEL 1 – MEANING AND SCOPE OF STRUCTURAL OR SYSTEMIC PROBLEMS IN PRISON MATTERs
Julien Attuil-Kayser, Head of the Transversal Division of the CPT
The CPT’s approach to structural prison problems.
Natalia Brady, Lawyer in the Directorate of Jurisconsult in the Registry of the ECtHR.
The Court’s consideration of systemic problems in the prison system > Case law references
PANEL 2 – THE RESPONSES PROMOTED IN THE CRIMINAL FIELD
Annie Kensey, Centre de recherches sociologiques sur le droit et les institutions pénales (CESDIP)
Changes in prison demographics in Europe, the state of knowledge.
Sonja Snacken, Emer. Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Structural problems in prisons: Fostering solutions.
Vassilis Tzevelekos, Reader in law (Associate Professor) University of Liverpool, Member of the CPT
Any Room for Flexibility in Minimum Standards of Protection in Prisons?
PANEL 3 – SYNERGIES BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS TO RESOLVE STRUCTURAL ISSUES
IN PRISON
Nicoleta Hriplivii, Co-founder and lawyer at PromoLEX Association, Board member of EPLN
Prison reforms in the context of EU accession. The case of the Republic of Moldova > Presentation / Notes
PANEL 4 – THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONS ON PENAL POLICIES:
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES (Part I)
Xabier Etxebarria Zarrabeitia, Professor, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Board member of EPLN
European responses to the problem of prisoners with mental health disorders. The case of Spain.
PANEL 5 – THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONS ON PENAL POLICIES:
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES (Part II)
Emilio Santoro, Professor, University of Florence, member of l’Altro Diritto
The Italian example, or the limits of the procedural approach to problem-solving.
PANEL 6 – THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONS ON PENAL POLICIES:
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES (Part I)
Kateřina Šimáčková, ECtHR Judge
Protecting the dignity of prisoners from the effects of the informal prisoner hierarchy.
Krassimir Kanev, Founding member of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Vice-president
of EPLN, Board member of EIN
European Apprehension of the Statutory Voting Ban for Serving Prisoners in Bulgaria.
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This event is funded by the European Union and the Robert Carr Fund, and sponsored by the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the organisers and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the Robert Carr Fund or the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe. Neither the European Union, the Robert Carr Fund, nor the Permanent Representation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Council of Europe can be held responsible for them.
