III. Legal Analysis
Council of Europe
The CoE passed a recommendation along with Resolution 1707. The most important
recommendation calls for a consultation body, comprised of experts from governmental
committee bodies and NGOs, to look further into the 10 guiding principles.92
As of 2015, there are many monitoring committees participating in monitoring detention
centers since Resolution 1707. The three most important are the CPT, ECSR, and the ECRI.93
The CDCJ plans on codifying existing international standards relating to detention conditions in
closed administrative centers and, as appropriate, in other places of non-penal detention. The
committee intends to rely on the European Prison Rules as a model to improve conditions of
detention centers.94The CoE is still working on finding alternatives to detention. This was
included in Resolution 1707. The CDDH has decided to explore further work on the legal and
practical effective alternatives to detention, by December 2017.95
There must be better enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure compliance with the
standards. The resolutions failed to identify any benchmark dates to measure compliance. The
resolutions failed to state how the CoE would monitor the Member States or if the CoE would
require any follow-up reporting on the recommended changes. Finally, there is an issue with
access to information. The two handbooks referred to earlier were not easy to find on the CoE
website or with a simple Google search. There is no way an asylum seeker or their attorney could
find these handbooks without having knowledge that these two handbooks exist. Although, the
92
EUR. PARL. ASS., supra note 1.
EUR. PARL. ASS., supra note 35.
94
Id.
95
Id.
93
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