European prison rules
The European Prison Rules (European Prison Rules) or European Prison Rules are recommendations of the Council of Europe for its member States, which is increasingly assuming importance.
history
The 1973 European Prison Rules are based on the United Nations Minimum Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955). A revised version was decided in 1987. A further revision was decided on January 11, 2006 by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe . The minimum rules are written in the two official languages of the Council of Europe (English and French). The member states of the Council of Europe have undertaken to make the European prison rules known to prison staff and prisoners in the respective national language. The Justice Ministers of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have so far complied with this by jointly arranging a translation and publishing it as a book (1975, 1988). A translation of the new version is available online.
Legal validity
The European prison rules are neither international nor national law, but mere recommendations. Sometimes they are also referred to as "soft law", which indicates that they are not entirely non-binding after all. Neither the national courts nor the European Court of Human Rights are bound by the European prison rules. However, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture of the Council of Europe has started to use the European prison rules as a benchmark against which national law can be measured. As a result, the European Court of Human Rights has also started to refer to the European prison rules. It is therefore obvious that prisoners will also rely more on these rules in the future. The European Parliament is thinking about creating a legally binding European Prison Law on the basis of the European prison rules.
scope
The rules apply primarily to prisoners and prisoners on remand (rule 10.1). However, they are also applicable to people who were placed in a penal institution or remand prison for other reasons (Rule 10.3 a). They are also applicable to persons by a court in custody taken or to imprisonment were convicted but were accommodated elsewhere (Rule 10.3 b.
Principles
The latest version of the European Prison Rules is preceded by nine principles which are intended to guide the interpretation and implementation. Prison administrations are urged to apply the rules “in accordance with the letter and spirit of these principles”. The principles are:
- All persons who have been deprived of their liberty are to be treated with respect for their human rights.
- Persons deprived of their liberty retain all rights which were not lawfully deprived of them by imposing imprisonment or pre-trial detention.
- The restrictions imposed on persons deprived of their liberty should be kept to the minimum necessary and be proportionate to the purposes for which they were imposed.
- Conditions of detention that limit the human rights of prisoners cannot be justified by lack of resources.
- Life in prison should correspond as closely as possible to the positive aspects of life in society.
- Any deprivation of liberty must be organized in such a way that it facilitates the reintegration of prisoners into free society.
- Cooperation with the social services outside and, as far as possible, participation of civil society should be encouraged.
- Correctional staff perform an important public role and their recruitment, training and working conditions are intended to enable them to maintain high standards in the treatment of prisoners.
- All prisons should be subject to periodic government inspections and independent monitoring ( monitoring be).
Content
The European prison rules contain detailed regulations on the conditions of detention from admission and accommodation, hygiene, clothing, legal advice, external contacts, work, training, freedom of religion and belief, property of the prisoners, transfer, preparation for release. They contain special regulations for women, young people, small children, foreigners, as well as ethnic and linguistic minorities. A separate, detailed section is devoted to health care and the duties of medical staff. Another detailed section concerns the institution's rules and security as well as the legal protection of prisoners. This is followed by a section in which the selection, training and activities of the prison staff are regulated. While the majority of the rules apply to all types of prisoners, the final part of the European Prison Rules contains some special provisions for the execution of pre-trial detention on the one hand and the execution of criminal detention on the other.
Practical meaning
The European prison rules have so far had very little significance in Germany. This was due on the one hand to their low level of awareness, on the other hand also to the fact that similar, sometimes more precise or more far-reaching regulations existed in the German Prison Act (1976). This has changed with the revision of the European prison rules. These now go beyond the current penal law on a number of points.
It is expressly required that
- Prisoners are to be housed close to their homes;
- the minimum size of the detention rooms must be specified in national law;
- Prisoners are entitled to one hour of outdoor exercise per day or an alternative if the weather is bad;
- Prisoners are to be accommodated individually during the night;
- Prisoners are generally allowed to wear their own clothes;
- working prisoners should be included in the national social security system as much as possible, etc.
The practical significance of the European prison rules is likely to increase as a result of the federalism reform, which has made prison legislation a matter of the federal states. Insofar as the state legislation falls behind the previous provisions of the Prison Act, it will regularly have to be countered with the fact that it thereby violates the European prison principles.
Summary
The European prison rules represent a comprehensive system for regulating the conditions of detention. Although they are formally only recommendations to the governments of the member states of the Council of Europe, they are already gaining increasing practical importance in practice. However, they can only have legal validity through a resolution of the European Parliament.
See also
literature
- Federal Ministry of Justice, Berlin; Federal Ministry of Justice, Vienna; Federal Justice and Police Department, Bern (ed.): Deprivation of liberty: The recommendations of the Council of Europe - European prison principles 2006 . Forum Verlag Godesberg, Mönchengladbach 2007, ISBN 978-3-936999-30-3 .
- Frieder Dünkel, Christine Morgenstern and Juliane Zolondek: European prison principles adopted! In: New criminal policy. 3/2006
- Johannes Feest: European standards for the penal system. On the revision of the European Prison Rules. In: Journal for Prison and Criminal Assistance. 55th year, 5/2006, pp. 259-261.
- Florian Ruhs: The juvenile prison system in Germany and its conformity with international and European guidelines, recommendations and international law , in: StudZR 1/2011, pp. 85-100
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Federal Ministry of Justice, Berlin: Deprivation of liberty: The recommendations of the Council of Europe - European prison principles 2006 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
