On 20 November 2025, the Court and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) organised a seminar on prisoners’ rights and the situation of prisons in Europe. The event brought together around 90 representatives of the two bodies of the Council of Europe, who discussed areas of convergence between the Court’s case-law and the CPT’s monitoring work.

In his opening remarks, the President of the Court, Mattias Guyomar, highlighted the distinct but complementary roles of the Court and the CPT. He noted that these two bodies “mutually benefit from each other’s work, lending legitimacy to one another and creating a ‘symbiosis’”. He also spoke about the relationship between the Court’s case-law and CPT’s standards, stressing that their interaction is “crucial to our shared responsibility of preventing torture and ill-treatment in Europe.”

In his opening remarks, the President of the CPT, Alan Mitchell, underlined that “cooperation between the CPT and the European Court of Human Rights is vital to preventing ill-treatment and ensuring respect for dignity in every prison in Europe.”

During the seminar, participants exchanged views on topics such as measurable standards for assessing material conditions in prisons; respect for prisoners’ private life; protecting their physical and mental health; and solitary confinement. Lətif Hüseynov, judge elected in respect of Azerbaijan and former CPT President, Frédéric Krenc, judge elected in respect of Belgium, Diana Kovatcheva, judge elected in respect of Bulgaria, and Úna Ní Raifeartaigh, judge elected in respect of Ireland contributed to these discussions.

In the concluding remarks, Mykola Gnatovskyy, judge elected in respect of Ukraine and former President of the CPT, offered the Court’s perspective on the way forward, while Hugh Chetwynd, the CPT Secretary, presented the Committee’s perspective.