6
CPT: 15TH GENERAL REPORT
ACTIVITIES DURING THE PERIOD
1 AUGUST 2004 TO 31 JULY 2005
Visits
1.
The CPT organised seventeen visits totalling
157 days during the twelve-month period covered by
this General report. Of those visits, eleven (totalling
121 days) formed part of the CPT’s annual programme
of periodic visits and six (36 days) were ad hoc visits
which the Committee considered were required by the
circumstances.
Reference should also be made to the talks
between senior Russian officials and representatives of
the CPT, held in Moscow and Rostov-on Don from 26
to 28 January 2005. They focused on the Committee’s
findings during its ad hoc visit to the North Caucasian
region organised two months earlier.
2.
The above represents a small reduction in the
CPT’s visit-related activities as compared to the
previous year. In fact, staff changes within the
Committee’s Secretariat have been hampering the
intended increase in the annual visit programme.
However, this situation should be resolved in the
coming months (cf. also paragraph 37).
3.
The following countries received periodic
visits during the period 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2005:
Albania, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Italy, Moldova,
Poland, Russia, San Marino, Serbia and Montenegro,
and Slovakia.
The visit to Serbia and Montenegro was the
first by the CPT to that State Party, and the Committee
is pleased to record that its delegation received very
good cooperation at all levels. This was certainly due
in no small part to the two-day information seminar for
government officials and other interested parties
organised in Belgrade in September 2004, shortly
before the visit.
4.
As always, the programme of each periodic
visit embraced various types of establishments (police
stations, prisons, psychiatric hospitals, institutions for
minors) located in different parts of the country
concerned. Further, particular attention was given
during certain visits (for example, to Belgium,
Hungary, Italy and Poland) to the treatment of foreign
nationals detained under immigration legislation.
5.
The six ad hoc visits carried out by the CPT
during the period covered by this General Report
concerned Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
France (La Réunion), Malta, Russia (North Caucasian
region) and the United Kingdom.
6.
The main purpose of the CPT’s ad hoc visit
to Azerbaijan in May 2005 was to examine the
situation at Gobustan Prison, which accommodates all
of the country’s life-sentenced prisoners as well as
other prisoners serving long terms. Disturbing reports
concerning the treatment of inmates of this prison had
been received by the Committee. The visit also
provided an opportunity to take stock of recent
developments in the Azerbaijani prison system as a
whole.
7.
During the December 2004 ad hoc visit to
Bosnia and Herzegovina, the CPT re-examined the
situation in two psychiatric establishments (Jakeš
Institution for the Treatment, Rehabilitation and Social
Protection of chronic mental patients, and Sokolac
Psychiatric Hospital) which had been found to display
major deficiencies when first visited by the Committee
in the Spring of 2003.
8.
The CPT’s ad hoc visit to La Réunion
(France) in December 2004 was the first time that the
Committee had visited this overseas administrative
district (département d’outre-mer). The visit was
triggered by reports indicating that prison
establishments in La Réunion were facing difficulties,
in particular as a result of overcrowding. The CPT’s
delegation examined conditions in two of the three
prisons on the island. The opportunity was also taken
to review the situation as regards police custody,
following the instructions on the dignity of persons
detained by the police issued by the Minister of the
Interior on 11 March 2003.