ROMANIA: Support for setting up an efficient National Preventive Mechanism (Twinning)

The overall objective of this Twinning light project was to increase the promotion and protection of human rights in detention places in Romania through the establishment of a National Preventive Mechanism for preventing torture.

The project aimed at establishing the most suitable solutions for the implementation of such a National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) for preventing torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in all detention places. Comparative analysis, workshops and roundtable discussions were organized to reach this goal.

On the basis of a fact-finding mission to Bucharest and a series of consultations with the relevant Romanian institutions a comprehensive final report was elaborated by the project team. In addition to a state of play description of existing inspection mechanisms in Romania, this reports contains a comparative study of NPM in six EU Member States as well as recommendations on feasible solutions for implementing an NPM in Romania.

The Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI-GMR) contributed to the project, which was carried out by the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation and the Romanian Ministry of Justice as Twinning partners, by providing extensive short term expertise on the establishment of NPMs, combating torture and the protection of human rights of persons in detention. The country report about the Austrian Human Rights Advisory Board and the final report are available for download.