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A delegation of the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Romania from 28 April to 9 May 2025.
The purpose of the visit was to examine the treatment of persons held in prison and police establishments. The CPT delegation also reviewed the conditions and treatment of children in conflict with the law.
To this end, the delegation visited four prisons, with a particular focus on persons held in the maximum security, closed and detention on remand regimes and the security measures applied to them. An Educational Centre and a detention centre accommodating children and young persons were also visited. The delegation also visited five police arrest detention centres and looked into the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty by the police. Finally, the delegation analysed the effectiveness of investigations regarding allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials and prison staff.
In the course of the visit, the delegation held consultations with Radu Marinescu, Minister of Justice and Bogdan Despescu, State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Roxana Simona Momeu, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice, as well as Claudiu Silvian Românu, Director General of the National Prison Administration, Ioana Mihaela Morar, Deputy Director of the National Prison Administration, and other senior officials from the Ministries of Internal Affairs and of Justice. The delegation also met senior prosecutors in Bucharest.
Talks were held with members of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) within the office of the People Advocate (Ombudsperson) as well as with representatives of civil society.
The delegation presented its preliminary observations to the authorities at the end of the visit.
The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT: Vânia Costa Ramos (Head of Delegation), Helena Papa, Jeyhun Qarajayev, Vassilis Tzevelekos and Elisabetta Zamparutti. They were assisted by two experts Marie Brasholt (medical director, Dignity, Denmark) and Marius Caruana (Lead doctor, migrant health service, Malta) as well as by Julien Attuil-Kayser and Laura Ielciu-Erel, from the CPT secretariat. It was the Committee’s fifteenth visit to Romania.
The delegation visited the following establishments:
Police establishments
- Central detention facility No. 1 at Bucharest Municipal Police Headquarters
- Detention facility No. 10 at Bucharest Police Section No. 19
- County Detention facility, Buzău
- County Detention facility, Craiova
- County Detention facility, Pitești
Prison establishments
- Botoşani Prison
- Bucharest-Rahova Prison
- Craiova Prison
- Iaşi Prison
- Craiova Detention Centre for Minors and Youth
- Târgu Ocna Educational Centre for Minors and Youth
Source, photo and text – the CPT
