Improvement of the treatment of persons deprived of liberty in Kosovo*

The Council of Europe is implementing a Project on the “Improvement of the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty” with a duration of 36 months (October 2022 – September 2025), co-funded through voluntary contributions of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Norway, and the Council of Europe. The Project has an overall budget of 850000 EUR.

The Project will focus on supporting reform initiatives to consolidate the already achieved results within the framework of the 2016-2018 Horizontal Facility action “Enhancing the protection of human rights of prisoners in Kosovo*”, and expand the work to enable favorable conditions for treatment and healthcare provided to persons deprived of liberty compliant with the Council of Europe standards.

The Project’s target groups are healthcare professionals and other categories of staff in prisons and other closed institutions, whilst the end beneficiaries are prisoners in need of medical attention, forensic institute patients, and persons with mental and physical disabilities accommodated in special social welfare institutions.

The Project aim will be accomplished through the following measures:

strengthening co-operation and increasing consistency and co-ordination of approaches of all relevant stakeholders so as to improve the health care provided to all persons who are de facto, and de jure deprived of their liberty, including convicted persons, patients involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitalization and persons with mental disabilities placed in social welfare institutions;
further enhancing the professional performance of the Prison Healthcare Department within the Ministry of Health through capacity-building measures, by establishing relevant protocols and strengthening safeguards against ill-treatment;
reviewing legislation and policies regulating involuntary psychiatric hospitalization in light of Council of Europe standards and assessing and revising procedures and information provided to patients on their rights; and,
strengthening the protection of the human rights of detained patients with mental disabilities and facilitating their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

By achieving the above-mentioned objectives, the project will further enhance the knowledge and skills of medical and non-medical staff in prisons, other closed institutions, and relevant stakeholders, to strengthen the safeguards against ill-treatment in line with Council of Europe standards and the CPT recommendations. It will develop an efficient working methodology and encourage sustainable co-operation, with an overall aim to ensure the protection of the human rights of persons deprived of their liberty, with focus on convicted persons and patients with mental disabilities.

* All reference to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo

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PROJECT NEWS

Back Enhancing mental healthcare in Kosovo* prisons: Council of Europe facilitates the revision of mental health protocols and Standard Operating Procedures of the Prison Health Department

@ Council of Europe

The first working group (WG) meeting on revising the protocols and guidelines of the Prison Health Department (PHD) of the Ministry of Health, and the relevant Standard Operating Procedures was conducted on 21-23 February 2023 in in Istog/Istok, Kosovo*. It followed the assessment mission carried out by the Council of Europe consultants at the end of 2022 looking at the protocols and guidelines in question.

As a result of this meeting, the working group conceptualized specific amendments to the current mental healthcare protocols, guidelines, and the Standard Operating Procedures of the Prison Health Department, and these amendments will be further discussed and finalized during the next WG meeting, which will take place at the end of March 2023.

The WG was attended by approximately 40 members from the Prison Health Department, Kosovo Correctional Services (KCS), Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, Special Institute for Persons with Mental and Physical Disabilities, National Prevention Mechanism (NPM), Prison Inspectorate, as well as the civil society. The Deputy Minister of Health, the Head of the PHD, the Deputy Director General of the KCS, as well as the Head of the NPM and the Acting Chief Inspector of the Prison Inspectorate attended the first day of the meeting, thus showing the importance of this event for all project partners and beneficiaries.

The activity was organized under the auspices of the Council of Europe project “Improvement of the treatment of persons deprived of liberty”.

* All references to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions, or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United National Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.

Kosovo* 23 February 2023