The anti-torture committee of the Council of Europe warns about the detention conditions in Romania and Europe

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) presented its annual report for 2025 in Strasbourg, highlighting concerns regarding treatment and conditions of detention in Europe. The report includes the conclusions of an ad-hoc visit to Romania, where persistent issues were identified in forensic psychiatric hospitals. The CPT emphasizes that overcrowding in prisons is becoming the norm, affecting the regime of preventive detention and exposing individuals to inhumane treatment.

It also points out excessive regimes of preventive detention and poor conditions in detention centers for foreigners. In psychiatric hospitals, the CPT found evidence of neglect and physical abuse, including the use of electric shock weapons. Romania ratified the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture in 1994, but has not accepted the automatic publication of visit reports. The CPT conducted 22 visits in 2025, inspecting 182 places of detention.