Setting up of
an International Training Center
For Visits to Places of Deprivation of Liberty

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Approach & Progress

Association

The project is driven by the “Association for the Creation of an International Training Center for Visits to Places of Deprivation of Liberty”, a not-for-profit association founded on 21 February 2021 in France and whose activities are entirely dedicated to the preparation of the concept and the implementation of the project.

Consultation

The creation of an international professional training center for monitors of places of deprivation of liberty presupposes a broad consultation process to give those involved in the prevention of torture an opportunity to express their needs and formulate their expectations in terms of training and expertise.

The consultation takes place in two phases.

  • The first phase of the consultations (June – September 2021) was dedicated to the national prevention mechanisms of the Member States of the Council of Europe and the international stakeholders of torture prevention.

    On 1 June 2021, the association organised a launching conference under the aegis of the Council of Europe whose Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law opened the conference attended by 90 participants.. The project of setting up an international training centre as well as a project evaluation report commissioned by the Council of Europe were presented and the calendar and modalities of the consultation announced.

    In June and July 2021, a series of consultation meetings by videoconference was organised for small groups of European NPMs and international stakeholders of torture prevention.

    On 22 September 2021, a synthesis of the report of the first phase of the consultation, prepared by the association, was presented at the annual NPM conference which the Council of Europe organised in the framework of the European NPM Forum.

  • The second phase of the consultations with the NPMs will be organised shortly by the association at regional level (Africa & Middle East, Americas, Asia-Pacific).

    The association will put a calendar of the consultation sessions and a registration form online in due time.

    Translations as well as interpretation between French, English, and Spanish will be ensured by the association.

    The association will prepare a final report of the consultations by integrating the results of the second phase in the report of the first phase.

Working group

Taking duly into account the needs, expectations and ideas expressed during the two phases of the consultations, a working group will be tasked with making concrete and pragmatic proposals on all the aspects of the setting-up and the functioning of the future international training centre.

The working group will be called upon to make recommendations on six main issues:

  • Role of the NPMs and the international stakeholders in the setting up of the centre
  • Legal status, process and modalities for the creation and the gradual development of the centre
  • Governance and functioning of the centre
  • Funding of the centre
  • Contents and modalities of the trainings
  • Conditions of access to the trainings

The working group will be made up of some 15 representatives of NPMs and of international stakeholders of torture prevention who wish to participate. To the extent possible, the composition of the working group will reflect the diversity of NPMs. The meetings of the working group will be held by videoconference, in English and French.

The association will ensure the chair and the secretariat of the working group as well as simultaneous interpretation between English and French.

The working group will adopt the calendar of its meetings.

It will present its recommendations to the association, who will translate them in French and Spanish and publish them on this website.

Photographs : © Conseil de l’Europe/Sandro Weltin
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