Conference - Structural Problems in Prisons: Prospects for European Intervention
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On November 18-19th, the European Prison Litigation Network, together with the European Implementation Network, are organising an international conference ‘Structural Problems in Prisons: Prospects for European Intervention’.
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.
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 Researcher, CESDIP
Sonja Snacken Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
As well as many other speakers! Full programme to be announced soon.
