Council of Europe – #HumanRights. H46-8 L.B. group (Application No. 22831/08) and W.D. (Application No. 73548/13) v. Belgium Supervision of the execution of the #European Court’s #judgments

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalled that the structural problem of internment concerns the prolonged detention of internees in prison psychiatric wings without appropriate therapeutic treatment which impacts the effectiveness of the preventive remedy, due to a lack of suitable places in the external circuit and of qualified staff in prisons;
2. noted with interest that the applicants are no longer in prison without adequate care while inviting the authorities to keepthe Committee informed of the situation of those for which a new placement in prison would remain possible, thus five applicants released on probation, including the one who is wanted (Krynen, De Smedt (in the case of Smits and Others), Lankester, Rogiers and Van Zandbergen (in the case of Venken and Others);
3.         expressed concern at the significant increase again in the number of internees in prison and urged, once again, the authorities to intensify their efforts to resolve, as soon as possible and definitively, the structural problem already identified by the Court in 2012 (L.B.judgment);

4;         in particular, urged the authorities to immediately improve the health care of internees in prison by taking all possible measures to recruit sufficient custodial and care staff, so that the standard of supervision of this care, fixed by the authorities in 2021, becomes effective; also urged them to study the reasons for the increase of internees in prison and the increasing use of internment and to take appropriate measures without delay, to remedy this situation;

5.         furthermore, urged the authorities to speed up the creation of forensic psychiatric centres, to continue to expand the number of places for internees in the regular care circuit in order to ensure the smooth flow of the care pathway for all, and to establish, without delay, a national mechanism for the prevention of torture to monitor all places of detention, including those centres and psychiatric hospitals;
6. with regard to the compensatory remedy, noted with interest that, following theVenken and Others judgment, some Belgian courts and tribunals have eased the procedural burden on internees in relation to prescription, which now enables them to obtain compensation for the entire period of continuous violation of Article 5 § 1 (time spent in prison psychiatric wing without appropriate care);
7.         as regards the preventive remedy, expressed their concern about the practical effectiveness of the interim remedy, given the development of the situation since theVenkenjudgment (increase in the number of internees in prison and delays in the creation of places outdoors); therefore, called on the authorities to make every effort to resolve the fundamental structural problem as quickly as possible, while considering strengthening the monitoring by Social Protection Chambers of the situation of internees who are in prison psychiatric wings;
8.         decided to resume the consideration of this group of cases at their December 2024 DH meeting at the latest and, if no tangible progress is made by then, instructed the Secretariat to prepare a draft interim resolution for consideration at that meeting.