The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) issued a new Statement on Thursday 9 July welcoming the measures taken in almost all Member States to protect detainees from the coronavirus and to make up for the restrictions imposed by the health crisis.
The Committee welcomed the increased use of alternatives to deprivation of liberty, improved medical examination on admission, more opportunities for telephone or electronic contact with relatives and the suspension of detention of migrants in some Member States.
Nevertheless, the CPT “is now witness to a pandemic crisis taking place against the background of pre-existing flaws in various criminal justice systems”. The Committee therefore calls on the competent authorities in all Member States to phase out risk management in order to grasp the opportunities created by the pandemic. “Certain emergency measures put in place temporarily must be made sustainable”, it says, before going on to call for Member States “to refrain, to the maximum extent possible, from the detention of migrants, and to make further progress in the deinstitutionalisation of mental health care”. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)