Annual Report 2019
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Monitoring
No one should be treated in a degrading or humiliating manner. This aim also
applies in the Netherlands to those detained, cared for or treated under nonconsensual conditions, or whose freedom has been restricted by the government in
any other way. Under the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention
against Torture (OPCAT) 1, organisations with a supervisory or advisory role in the
area of people whose freedom has been restricted in the Netherlands together form
the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM). In this annual report for 2019, the NPM
reports on the detention conditions and the treatment of detainees or people
deprived of their liberty.
According to the annual report, the rights of those deprived of their liberty in the
Netherlands are respected. Based on the outcomes of these monitoring efforts, the
NPM concludes that people whose freedom has been restricted are cared for in an
adequate and conscientious manner. However, recommendations have been made
in a number of reports to further strengthen human rights at the legislative, policy
and practical level.
The following sections contain the main findings of the NPM’s monitoring activities in
2019.
Prison locations
Medical care staff
During the first six months of 2019, which is part of the NPM, the Health and Youth
Care Inspectorate visited all prison locations, immigration detention locations and
forensic hospitals. The Inspectorate drew up and published reports of each visit. It
additionally published a fact sheet containing its main conclusions.
The most pressing issue highlighted by the discussion partners of the Health and
Youth Care Inspectorate was the difficulty of finding and retaining sufficiently
qualified staff to provide medical care and treatment in prisons and forensic
1
According to Article 3 of the OPCAT, member states are obliged to ‘set up, designate or maintain […] one
or several visiting bodies for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment’. These bodies, responsible for conducting site visits within the member state, are referred to
as the NPM.
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