JUSTICE FOR ALL 01. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT Within the EU, the need for better coordinated judicial cooperation between the Member States has increased significantly over the last two decades. In order to facilitate and simplify judicial cooperation in criminal proceedings, the European Commission (EC) has adopted a series of procedural rights instruments (2009 Procedural Roadmap), including the 2002/584/JHA on the European Arrest Warrant; 2008/909/JHA on the Transfer of Prisoners, 2008/947/JHA on Probation and Alternative Sanctions;], and 2009/829/JHA on the European Supervision Order. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has clarified in various judgments that the application of mutual recognition instruments must not lead to a violation of fundamental rights.1 There is also a reference to fundamental rights in all Framework Decisions. Respect for fundamental rights is crucial to build mutual trust between Member States and ensure the good functioning of cross border cooperation. To comprehensively analyse cross border proceedings, it is necessary to look at national systems and identify challenges that arise at the national level related to international, regional and national standards (including EU standards, and those provided under the CRPD, ECHR, United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) and Council of Europe), which may hinder cross border cooperation. The project analyses the implementation of the above-mentioned EU Framework Decisions into national law with respect to the rights of defendants and detainees with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities. Although accused and detained persons with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities are in a particularly vulnerable situation, little to no attention has been paid in research to the specific challenges that defendants and de- tainees with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities may face when being subjected to cross border proceedings. At the same time, the research includes an assessment of the situation of defendants and detainees with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities within the national systems and measures compliance with international, regional and national standards. At national level, the criminal justice system provides for specific proceedings for defendants and detainees with intellectual and/ or psychosocial disabilities – the preventive measure system (“Maßnahmenvollzug”). This system contains provisions regarding criminal responsibility/incapacity due to a disability, procedural safeguards and deprivation of liberty in specialized institutions. The preventive measure was first introduced in 1975 and has undergone only minor changes after a long period. After many years of increasing criticism towards the preventive measure system (including criticism from the CRPD Committee)2 and the deterioration of the situation in places of deprivation of liberty, a reform law was passed as a first part of an overall reform of the preventive measure system; it entered into force in March 2023. The reform is a response not only to ongoing criticism, but to multiple condemnations by the ECtHR with regards to the preventive measure system.3 METHODOLOGY The findings presented in this report are a product of research that was conducted as part of a project co-funded by the European Commission, with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Fundamental and Human Rights (Austria) leading the project in cooperation with the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (Bulgaria), Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Germany), Antigone (Italy), Mental Health Perspectives (Lithuania) and Peace Institute (Slovenia). 13