Aims and objectives

Between March 2014 and April 2015 the HRIC worked in partnership with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (BIM) on a project to help strengthen the implementation and follow-up of recommendations of torture monitoring bodies within the European Union. This project was funded by the European Union through the European Commission Directorate General for Justice as well as the Council of Europe and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This project aimed to strengthen the effective implementation and follow-up of recommendations made by torture monitoring bodies on the national, regional and the international levels. Furthermore, the project aimed to support and improve coordination between NPMs, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) and the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT). In addition to the monitoring bodies themselves, the project targeted representatives of relevant authorities from those EU Member States, which have already entered in a structured dialogue with the respective NPM, civil society actors and representatives of EU institutions which are or could potentially be involved in following up recommendations of torture monitoring bodies.

Under this project research was carried out to identify and analyse the standards, principles, procedures and mechanisms concerning follow-up to the recommendations of the NPMs operating in the EU, as well as those of the CPT and SPT. The overall aim was to identify lessons learnt that could help to develop good practice regarding follow-up on recommendations.

Two stakeholder workshops were held in Vienna and Bristol in order to provide a platform for representatives of NPMs, the CPT and the SPT to exchange experiences and practices of follow-up procedures and tools. The preliminary findings from this research were subsequently presented at a final conference was held on 29 April 2015 in Vienna. This conference brought together representatives from NPMs, the CPT, SPT, as well as representatives from the EU, State and civil society, with a view to finalising a good practice study on strengthening the effective implementation and follow-up of recommendations by torture monitoring bodies in the European Union.