Overcrowding and bad conditions of detention in Belgian prisons

Vasilescu v Belgium (Application No 64682/12)

Powerpoint by Bart de Temmerman, Member of the Bureau, CCSP, May 2022

The case concerns structural problems concerning prison overcrowding and poor material conditions of detention and lack of effective remedies. In the Vasilescu judgment, the Court noted that the problems of prison overcrowding, unhygienic and dilapidated prisons were structural in nature (§§ 73 and 127), denounced a long time ago (§§ 46 and 47). In addition, none of the remedies invoked by the Government was an effective remedy to be exhausted (§ 127). The Court referred to those issues in particular relation to the interim remedy for a detained person wishing to challenge his conditions of detention, in view of the overall penitentiary situation and the Belgian case-law (absence of relevant example) (§ 74). The Court indicated that general measures should be taken in order to guarantee detainees conditions of detention compatible with Article 3 of the Convention. The remedy should be accessible for detainees to prevent the continuation of an alleged violation or to allow the person concerned to obtain an improvement of his conditions of detention (Vasilescu, § 128). On 29 March 2022, a new action plan was transmitted by the authorities in this group of cases in view of its examination by the Committee of Ministers at its DH meeting of June 2022 (DH-DD(2022)384).

The Central Prisons Supervisory Council (CCSP) submitted on 28 April 2022 a new communication to the Committee (DH-DD(2022)517). Bart de Temmerman, member of the Bureau of the CCSP, briefed about the case.

Belgium

Join Us Online