Covid-19. NPM resumes monitoring activity of places where people are deprived of their liberty

 

The National Prevention Mechanism (NPM) decided to gradually resume monitoring visits to areas where people are deprived of their liberty, after the suspension of face-to-face activity decided in March following the OVID-19 pandemic, in line with the guidelines of the Directorate General for Health (DGS, in Portuguese) and the option of other international NPMs.

During this month of October, the focus has been given to Educational Centers, and visits are being made to the six units in the country to receive young people who, for the most part, are there complying with the measure of internment. For this purpose, videoconferencing equipment installed in them during the past year has been used following a recommendation (hyperlink: Recommendation no. 1/2019) of the MNP.

To the extent permitted by the DGS guidelines, with whom the NPM has already met twice in the context of the pandemic, the gradual resumption of face-to-face visits will be continued.

After a first meeting with DGS in July, the NPM carried out a number of monitoring visits, equipped with the requisite security measures so as not to endanger those visiting or those being visited. Until the end of September, two spaces similar to the temporary installation centre (EECIT, in Porto and Lisbon) and six prison establishments (Lisbon, Porto, Viana do Castelo, Coimbra, Paços de Ferreira and Vale do Sousa) were visited in person.

Given the importance of the presence of outside entities in spaces of deprivation of liberty to ensure that the dignity of the people housed there is not harmed by the pandemic, during this period the MNP also strengthened contacts with national and international authorities to discuss and seek the best monitoring solutions adjusted to the new health context.

In addition, the link between the functions of the MNP and the other functions of the Ombudsman’s Office of receiving and hearing complaints has been strengthened internally to better understand the reality experienced by those deprived of their liberty. The Ombudsman also addressed a Recommendation to the Minister of Justice, reflected in Law no. 9/2020, of 10 April, which contemplates an exceptional regime of flexibility in the execution of sentences and measures of grace, following the pandemic.

Returning to the beginning of the year, during the first two months the MNP made six visits (to three prisons, a temporary installation centre, an educational centre and a place of detention of a police force). During that period, the MNP also received a delegation from the Cape Verde Human Rights Commission for a training session.

The National Prevention Mechanism, assigned to the Ombudsman’s Office in Portugal, was created to make regular and unannounced visits to places of deprivation of liberty, following a preventive logic, in compliance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading or Inhuman Treatment or Punishment.