The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) issued a statement on Thursday 13 July criticising the persistent incapacity of the Belgian authorities to introduce a minimum service to ensure the respect of detainee rights in the event of a strike by prison staff.
Exceptionally, this procedure was decided by a two-thirds majority and only applies if a state does not collaborate or refuses to improve a situation in the light of the CPT’s recommendations.
Before Belgium, only four other countries have been subject to this procedure since the European Convention against Torture and Degrading Treatment came into force in 1987, namely Turkey (condemned in 1992 and 1996 for torture when people are arrested), Russia (condemned in 2001 and 2003 for illegal detention and torture in Chechnya), Greece (condemned in 2011 for degrading detention conditions for illegal aliens) and Bulgaria (condemned in 2015 for physical violence against detainees).
The CPT public statement on Belgium criticises the recurrent inability of the authorities to establish legislation on the provision of a guaranteed service in the event of a strike by prison staff to ensure the distribution of meals, the cleaning of cells, access to showers and daily walks and maintaining contact with the outside world, including lawyers. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)