Prishtina, 11 February 2025 – The Deputy Ombudsman, Mr. Basri Kastrati and the Director of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture, Ms. Shqipe Mala and associates, received a delegation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), led by Mr. Victor Zaharia.

The CPT delegation was informed about the work of the NPM on regular visits to all places of deprivation of liberty, including police detention, pre-trial detention, prisons, detention facilities, as well as visits to any other space where persons deprived of liberty are held.

The attendees were informed about the situation of respect for persons deprived of their liberty and the implementation of the CPT recommendations issued after the last visit in 2020. The meeting also highlighted the organization of two roundtables by Ombudsperson and the NPMT in cooperation with the Office for Good Governance, regarding the CPT recommendations, where the achievements and challenges in their implementation were discussed with the country’s authorities.

The delegation was interested in the work of the police, the situation of mental health, social care, respect for the rights of foreigners, the confidentiality of interviews conducted with persons deprived of their liberty without the presence of police and correctional officers.

The CPT delegation is visiting the Republic of Kosovo with the aim of assessing the respect for the fundamental human rights of persons deprived of their liberty. The CPT is a monitoring mechanism of the Council of Europe that monitors the implementation of the European Convention against Torture in Europe.