This forum facilitates exchange between participants of the Project “Strengthening Procedural rights in Police Custody”. The aim is to strengthen the rights of suspects and accused persons by sharing and disseminating promising practices across the EU.
The EU legal instruments in the area of procedural rights in criminal proceedings are an important source of minimum standards for protection against arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and other human rights violations across the EU. However, research has demonstrated that even if appropriate legislative measures are taken, this does not mean that the requirements of the EU Directives on procedural rights are adequately implemented in practice. Effective implementation also depends on several other factors. Numerous research projects have already identified gaps and challenges in implementation as well as best practice examples and recommendations, but these must now be properly implemented in order to effectively bring about improvements in the protection of the rights of suspects and accused persons.
With the Project “Strengthening Procedural rights in Police Custody”, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (LBI GMR), in cooperation with Rights International Spain (Spain), APADPOR-CH (Romania), Irish Council for Civil Liberties (Ireland), Fair Trials Europe (Belgium), aims to build on previous research to strengthen procedural rights in criminal proceedings, mainly with regards to legal aid, access to a lawyer, right to information, audio-visual recording and procedural rights of children.
The overall objective is to fill the gaps in the practical implementation of the EU procedural directives by adopting a systemic, multi-stakeholder approach that will facilitate change from within the criminal justice system. To achieve this, the project will cover three main work packages.
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The project consortium will engage in the elaboration and specification of good practice examples to foster a better understanding of the concrete challenges for the implementation of good practices as well as of their direct and indirect benefits for suspects, national authorities and other relevant actors.
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The project aims to engage key stakeholders in reform efforts to ensure that practical solutions will address the crucial challenges practitioners face in their daily lives.
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There will be a focus on the involvement of civil society organizations across the EU, exploring their role as change agents, as they can often draw on extensive knowledge in the implementation of procedural rights and are thus ideally placed to facilitate reforms and support policymakers and practitioners.
For more detail on the overall project, check the LBI GMR website: https://bim.lbg.ac.at/en/project/current-projects-projects-human-dignity-and-public-security/law-practice-strengthening-procedural-rights-police-custody-prorpc
