Vous avez besoin d’aide?
Brauchen Sie Hilfe?
¿Hace falta ayuda?Working for a world where every person's right to a fair trial is respected, whatever their nationality, wherever they are accused
Pre-Trial Detention
Across the EU, people not convicted of any crime are locked up without good reason for months or even years, often in appalling conditions with limited access to a lawyer
All states should protect the right to liberty and not use detention except where properly justified. Clearly, in some cases it is necessary to hold a person in custody for a certain period after arrest, for example, to ensure vital evidence is preserved or key witnesses are protected. But pre-trial detention is only acceptable where necessary and no alternative is available. Detention conditions must be sanitary, safe and humane.
Even if pre-trial detention is justified, those held in detention should be given:
- facilities to prepare a defence;
- confidential communications with their lawyer; and
- a regular review of whether detention remains necessary.
- Detention without trial booklet
- Detention without trial full report
- European Commission Green Paper on pre-trial detention
- Legal Experts Advisory Panel Meeting Discussion Paper
- Legal Experts Advisory Panel Communique on pre-trial detention
Related Pages
- Pre-trial detention: client testimonies FTI clients share their stories of pre-trial detention in Europe.
- FTI detention report launched in Brussels Fair Trials International launched a major report on pre-trial detention on 10 November at the European Parliament
- MEPS VOTE FOR MAJOR REFORMS TO PRE-TRIAL DETENTION Members of the European Parliament have today voted for urgent action by the European Commission and Member States, to end the unjustified and excessive use of pre-trial detention.
- Pre-Trial Detention - Cases of Injustice Details of Fair Trials International cases which highlight the excessive use of pre-trial detention across Europe
- ANDREW SYMEOU Twenty one year old student extradited into pre-detention on evidence obtained by police brutality
- Robert Hörchner Robert was extradited from Holland to Poland, where he was detained for 10 months in horrific conditions, receiving almost no information about his case and little access to legal advice
- Commission says EU countries must stop excessive pre-trial detention The European Commission has today published a Green Paper on detention across the European Union
- Unfair pre-trial detention in the EU - a shocking picture European citizens are increasingly victims of rough justice and horrific detention conditions, it is time that Europe got its house in order, says Catherine Heard
newsletter
Receive our monthly email newsletter direct to your inbox.
“ Too little use has been made of more human and effective alternatives to pre-trial detention. ”
Thomas Hammarberg, Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights
“ It could be difficult to develop closer judicial cooperation between Member States unless further efforts are made to improve detention conditions and to promote alternatives to custody. ”
European Commission