the protection of persons deprived of their liberty.”14 A 2019 report by the UN Human Rights Council (“HRC”) underlines that “[b]y depriving persons of their liberty, States assume the responsibility to protect the life and bodily integrity of such persons. States are thus obligated to prevent the illtreatment of, and violence against such persons and to ensure that the conditions of a dignified life are met.”15 Violence in places of detention can take various forms. Violence regularly occurs between detainees:16 [I]nter-prisoner violence constitutes an important cause of death and serious injury of persons deprived of their liberty, representing in some contexts over 17 per cent of deaths in custody. This type of violence is widespread, with some surveys indicating that over half of the prisoners interviewed had been exposed to violence originating from fellow inmates. Despite the challenges (discussed below) in identifying and addressing cases of violence in detention, high-profile cases have emerged in the European Union of detention staff also committing violent crimes against detainees.17 Putting a person in detention not only places them in a violent setting, it also makes them vulnerable in other ways. Detained people are isolated, stigmatized, and lack access to information and to means of communication with the outside world. Detention is not transparent - there is a lack of accountability and oversight. Procedural safeguards of people held in detention are not guaranteed. Places of detention often operate in the shadows and outside the scope of the relevant legal frameworks. Pre-trial and immigration detainees’ vulnerability is often exacerbated by the fact that, unlike convicted detainees, they do not know how long they are going to remain in detention.18 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 14 The vulnerability of detainees, combined with high levels of violence in detention, is why detainees’ rights as victims need specific scrutiny. Over the past two years, Fair Trials worked with five partners19 to examine the barriers to access to justice for detained people who suffer violence, whether inflicted by detention staff or co-detainees, in six Member States (Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden).20 More specifically, we considered whether the rights of these people under EU law as victims of crime (“Victims’ Rights”)21 are accessible in pre-trial and immigration detention. This report provides a regional overview of that work. The first part of the report identifies the systemic challenges that arise in the specific context of detention. The second part of the report analyses the specific challenges that arise in relation to the exercise of five key areas of Victims’ Rights and proposes recommendations to overcome them: (i) the right to information; (ii) the procedural rights of victims in criminal proceedings; (iii) the right to protection measures (including against repeat victimisation); (iv) the right to specialised support services; and (v) the right to compensation. The final section of the report outlines recommendations addressed to the EU institutions. Human Rights Council, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the SecretaryGeneral, Human rights in the administration of justice, 2019, A/HRC/42/20, p. 6 (references omitted), available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/session42/Documents/A_HRC_42_20.docx. Ibid. Human Rights Council, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the SecretaryGeneral, Human rights in the administration of justice, 2019, A/HRC/42/20, p. 6 (references omitted), available at: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/session42/Documents/A_HRC_42_20.docx. See e.g. the case study at page 37 below in Belgium regarding the sentencing of a group of prison guards from the Forest prison in Brussels in March 2019. Fair Trials, A Measure of Last Resort: The practice of pre-trial detention decision-making in the EU, 2016, available at: https://www.fairtrials.org/publication/measure-lastresort; Jesuit Refugee Service-Europe, Becoming vulnerable in detention, p. 121, available at: https://jrseurope.org/assets/Publications/File/JRS-Europe_Becoming%20Vulnerable%20In%20Detention_June%202010_PUBLIC.pdf. REDRESS (Netherlands), Centre for Peace Studies (Croatia), Antigone (Italy), Hungarian Helsinki Committee (Hungary) and Civil Rights Defenders (Sweden). The many other forms of violence that exist in detention, including harassment and other forms of psychological violence which may fuel physical violence, are beyond the scope of this report. For other forms of violence in prison, see e.g. World Health Organisation, Prison and Health (2014), pp. 19-21, available at: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/249188/Prisons-and-Health.pdf. Provided by Directive 2012/29/EU establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (“2012 Directive”) and Directive 2004/80/EC relating to compensation to crime victims (“2004 Directive”). Discussed more extensively below in the context of under-reporting.