Protective measures should allow people to attend trials and receive legal counsel Law enforcement, prisons, parole boards and courts should take all appropriate measures to protect anybody from contracting COVID-19. To ensure criminal justice bodies can continue functioning, measures such as remote hearings or appointments should be put in place and/or providing recommended protective gear for face-to-face processes. Any restrictive measure – if needed at all – should be individualised and based on independent medical findings. Blanket restrictive measures contravene to principles of fair trial and the right to access legal counsel. Detention monitoring and right to prohibition of torture and ill-treatment In addition to limiting contacts with relatives and legal representatives, authorities will be generally restricting any access into places of detention including for members of monitoring bodies. In times of emergency, the ability of independent bodies to monitor developments in detention facilities is essential to prevent excessive use of quarantine, abuse of power, use of torture or ill-treatment. Visits by monitoring bodies can only be limited exceptionally. Such exceptions are foreseen in the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT), under the following circumstances (art 14 (2) OPCAT): ‘Objection to a visit to a particular place of detention may be made only on urgent and compelling grounds of national defence, public safety, natural disaster or serious disorder in the place to be visited that temporarily prevent the carrying out of such a visit’. As outlined by the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture in advice provided to the United Kingdom National Preventive Mechanism, in view of COVID-19, ‘there would need to be a particular reason why … a visit ought not to take place at a particular point in time, rather than that such visits ought not to take place at all’.16 Furthermore, places of quarantine fall within the mandate of monitoring bodies, as they should have access to all areas of places of detention run by the state. States should guarantee access to prison for monitoring bodies While some protective measures are legitimate, there is no evidence indicating that during theCOVID-19 pandemic places of detention should not be accessed by monitoring bodies. States should follow the principles laid out in Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, as their legal obligation for those who have ratified it, and as a guidance for those who have not yet ratified the instrument. Access of monitoring bodies is a key safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment. It can prevent human rights violations from taking place, but also provides opportunities for reporting ill-treatment and for taking action. Advice from the SPT to the UK NPM regarding compulsory quarantine for Coronavirus, 27 February 2020, available at https://icva.org.uk/advice-from-the- 16 spt-to-the-uk-npm-regarding-compulsory-quarantinefor-coronavirus/. Page 9 of 13 www.penalreform.org