Contributor(s)APADOR-CH (The Helsinki Committee) and Prison Insider

Introduction

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) regularly condemns Romania for inadequate detention conditions and inhuman treatment of prisoners (violation of article 3 of the Convention). Overcrowding remains an issue of serious concern.

Despite the reforms undertaken in 2014 with the entry into force of a new Criminal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure as well as new laws on probation and custodial and non-custodial sentences, pre-trial detention is still being applied significantly and the average pre-trial detention length is still well above the European average. In 2015, the Council of Europe’s anti-torture Committee (CPT) expressed its concerns regarding theses issues.

2015 also saw the completion of the legislative process to designate the Romanian Ombudsman as National Prevention Mechanism.

Country population

19,511,000

Type of government

Constitutional republic with a democratic and multiparty parliamentary system

Human Development Index

0.802

i
2016
/ UNDP