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belgique_2022.jpeg
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Belgium

Capital city — Brussels

  • Country population

    11,569,034
    i
    01/2022
    / SPF Intérieur
  • Incarceration rate (per 100,000 inhabit…

    90
    i
    2021
    / World Prison Brief, ICPR
  • Type of government

    Parliamentary monarchy
  • Human Development Index

    0.931

    (14/189)

    i
    2019
    / UNDP
  • Homicide rate (per 100,000 inhabitants)

    2
    i
    2017
    / World Bank
  • Name of authority in charge of the pris…

    Ministry of Justice

    The official name…

  • Total number of prisoners

    10,379
    i
    01/2021
    / Council of Europe, SPACE I – Report 2021
  • Average length of imprisonment (in mont…

    7.4
    i
    2020
    / Council of Europe, SPACE I – Report 2021
  • Prison density

    108 %

    Belgium is one of…

    i
    31/01/2021
    / Council of Europe, SPACE I – Report 2021
  • Total number of prison facilities

    35
    i
    2020
    / World Prison Brief, ICPR
  • An NPM has been established

    no

    The Civil Society…

  • Number and percentage of female prisone…

    4.9 %
    i
    01/2021
    / ICPR
  • Incarcerated minors

    0 %
    i
    2021
    / World Prison Brief, ICPR
  • Untried prisoners

    38.4 %
    i
    01/2021
    / World Prison Brief, ICPR
  • Death penalty is abolished

    yes, since 1996
    i
    it had not been applied since 1950
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Year2022
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For more information

Key Websites¶

  • The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT)
  • The Belgian department of the International Prison Watch
  • The Human Rights League (Prisons Division)
  • The Liga voor mensenrechten

Reports¶

  • Le Guide du prisonnier en Belgique, ed. Luc Pire, OIP et LDH, 2016, under the supervision of Marie-Aude Beernaert, Philippe Mary and Marc Neve
  • “Brussels mega-prison: origin of a crime “
  • Report from the International Prison Watch on the state of the Belgian prison system, 2016
  • Notice from the International Prison Observatory on the state of the Belgian prison system, 2013
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