Improving judicial cooperation across the EU through harmonised detention standards – the role of National Preventive Mechanism (2019-2021)

The transnational project coordinated by the Vienna-based Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights aimed to contribute to the development of the practice of 22 European National Preventive Mechanisms enhancing experience exchange among these institutions and facilitating harmonization of detention standards in the European Union. Professional handbooks were created on the following specific topics:

• Monitoring prison violence – by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights
• Monitoring solitary confinement in prison – by Associazione Antigone
• Prisoners in a situation of vulnerability – by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
• Complaint procedures and the right to information in prisons – by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee

The series was further complemented by a Dossier on systemic thinking in preventive human rights monitoring by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights.

The project was launched in 2019. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee, as a project partner, was responsible for the preparation of the guidebook on the topic of complaint procedures that was also in the focus of the online workshops organized by the HHC on 27 and 30 April 2020. A detailed report about the events is available in Hungarian here.

The project activities involving NPMs were closed by an international conference on 3-4 November 2020.

The project was funded by the European Union.