National action: Presidents of the Bar Associations carry out surveillance in all Belgian prisons
To mark European Human Rights Day, all Belgian Presidents of the Bar Associations are exercising their new legal visitation right, which since this year has allowed them to visit prisons within their jurisdiction. Every President of a Bar Associations in Belgium is visiting one of the prisons today. This national action underlines the seriousness of the situation in Belgian prisons, where overcrowding and a lack of basic facilities threaten the fundamental rights of detainees.
With this visit, Advocaat.be, Avocats.be and all the bar associations want to contribute to more transparency and awareness around detention conditions in Belgium. Overcrowding and insufficient access to care, training and leisure facilities are some of the distressing problems facing Belgian prisons. For this, Belgium has been condemned several times by international bodies for human rights violations.
Met dit bezoek willen Advocaat.be, Avocats.be en alle balies zorgen voor meer transparantie en bewustwording rond de detentieomstandigheden in België. Niet alleen wordt vandaag het gevangenispersoneel in gevaar gebracht, ook voor gedetineerden is er van een humane behandeling of reële re-integratiekansen nauwelijks sprake. Als we het recidivecijfer — dat rond de 70 procent blijft schommelen — willen verbeteren, dan heeft Justitie dringend structurele verandering nodig.
De overbevolking en flagrant onvoldoende toegang tot gezondheidszorg zijn enkele schrijnende problemen waarmee de Belgische gevangenissen kampen. België is daarvoor al meermaals veroordeeld door internationale instanties vanwege schendingen van de mensenrechten. Hoewel de wet én het Europees mensenrechtenverdrag gevangenen een gelijkwaardige gezondheidszorg en een menswaardige behandeling garanderen, blijft de werkelijkheid dus mijlenver achter. De kloof tussen recht en praktijk is onmiskenbaar — en onaanvaardbaar.
Monitoring and signalling
The Presidents of the Bar Associations have the right, introduced in 2024, to visit prisons within their jurisdiction without prior permission from the minister. Collectively, the Presidents of the Bar Associations exercise this right today. They also enter an occupied cell and they can engage in conversation with detainees. This does require the permission of the Director-General, which has been granted. This allows them to contribute to the monitoring of detention conditions within their area of operation. Their observations provide valuable insights into daily life in detention, complement and reinforce the signals given by individual lawyers, allowing violations of fundamental rights to be signalled more forcefully.
More than a symbolic visit
The visits are more than a symbolic statement. They are part of a broader effort to effectively protect the rights of detainees and improve the quality of detention policy in Belgium. The aim is not only to draw attention to conditions in prisons today, but also to bring about concrete changes. The Presidents of the Bar Associations conduct these visits in complete independence, after which Advocaat.be, as the umbrella professional body, will compile the findings and present them early next year.
It is the first time the Presidents of the Bar Associations have exercised this visitation right and they chose to do so collectively. This historic moment not only highlights the importance of the newly acquired power, but also highlights the role of the legal profession as a guardian of fundamental rights, even behind prison walls. Through these visits, the Presidents of the Bar Associations have the opportunity not only to get a view of detention conditions but also to gather evidence, where necessary, of situations that violate the fundamental rights of detainees. This visit heralds more regular visits in order to draw continued attention to the precarious situation inside prison walls.
Expanding visitation rights: equal rights for all detainees
Besides monitoring prison conditions, Advocaat.be also continues to advocate for an extension of the visitation right. Currently, this right only applies to prisons. Other places of detention, such as centres where persons without legal residence are held, detention houses, forensic psychiatric centres and police cells fall outside this framework. This does happen in neighbouring countries such as France. Advocaat.be continues to insist that the rights of detainees should be better monitored in all detention centres, regardless of type.
Advocaat.be calls on policymakers to address the structural problems in the prison system and penal policy and to guarantee inmates humane treatment. This is not only in the interest of prisoners, but also of society. Human rights apply to everyone, including inside prison walls.
Wat is een stafhouder?
Een stafhouder is het hoofd van een lokale balie van advocaten en vertegenwoordigt de advocatuur in een bepaald gebied. In Vlaanderen zijn er 8 balies. In die hoedanigheid waakt de stafhouder over de naleving van de beroepsregels en kan hij of zij tuchtmaatregelen treffen. Als onafhankelijke toezichthouder kan een stafhouder gebruikmaken van het wettelijk visitatierecht om gevangenissen te bezoeken en de rechten van gedetineerden te controleren.
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