On May 12, 2026, the Ombudsman submitted a communication to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in the context of monitoring the execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the Petrescu v. Portugal group of cases.

Among other responsibilities, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of ECHR decisions, monitoring the measures adopted by States to ensure full compliance with the judgments. As part of this supervision and monitoring process, National Human Rights Institutions—a role fulfilled in Portugal by the Ombudsman—may submit communications to the Committee.

In its judgment in the case of Petrescu v. Portugal, dated December 3, 2019, the Court found a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights due to poor conditions of detention, linked to a structural problem of overcrowding in more than half of Portuguese prisons (as of the date of that judgment) and recommended that the Portuguese State consider adopting general measures to ensure that prisoners are held in conditions consistent with the Convention. The ECHR also criticized the lack of an effective domestic remedy capable of putting an end to an alleged violation of prisoners’ rights or of allowing them to obtain a remedy or to enable them to secure an improvement in their conditions of detention.

In the report now submitted to the Committee of Ministers, the Ombudsman noted that the regular monitoring of conditions of detention—conducted both in the exercise of his mandate as a National Preventive Mechanism and in the context of investigating complaints filed by prisoners—leads to the conclusion that, despite the investment made in the refurbishment of some prisons, the systemic or structural problems identified in the ECtHR judgment persist, and no significant progress has been made regarding the issues that formed the basis of the previous decisions adopted by the Committee of Ministers in the implementation of the judgment.

The submitted communication is available for consultation here.

By a decision of the Croatian Parliament, 6 June is marked as the National Day of the Rights of Persons with Mental Health Conditions. This is one of the most vulnerable social groups, facing many problems in everyday life, above all frequent prejudice, stigmatisation and social exclusion. Persons with mental health conditions may also be exposed to degrading and inhuman treatment.

The Ombudswoman protects the rights of persons with mental health conditions whose freedom of movement is restricted through several of her mandates. Based on her ombudsman mandate and her mandate as the National Human Rights Institution, in accordance with the powers set out in the Ombudsman Act, she acts on complaints and in cases opened on her own initiative. Based on her mandate as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), in accordance with the powers set out in the Act on the National Preventive Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, she carries out preventive visits to places where persons with mental health conditions whose freedom of movement is restricted are held.

In the area of protecting the rights of persons with mental health conditions whose freedom of movement is restricted, in her 2025 Report the Ombudswoman pointed to problems raised by citizens in their complaints. These relate, for example, to dissatisfaction with prescribed and administered therapy, failure to hospitalise a person at the request of family members, inadequate accommodation conditions in psychiatric institutions, issues concerning the validity of voluntary consent and placement in a closed psychiatric ward, as well as patients not being informed that their voluntary treatment would be carried out in closed conditions.

During 2025, the Ombudswoman also visited the Psychiatry Department of Zadar General Hospital, the Psychiatry Department of the General Hospital of Šibenik-Knin County, the Psychiatry Department of Požega General County Hospital and the Psychiatry Department of Virovitica General Hospital, as well as the Insula Rab County Special Hospital for Psychiatry and Rehabilitation and the Dr Ivan Barbot Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Popovača. The visits were carried out with the aim of determining the conditions in which persons with mental health conditions are treated, the manner in which they are treated, patients’ awareness of their rights, and the legality and purposefulness of the use of means of restraint.

More information on this topic, a detailed analysis of the situation and the Ombudswoman’s recommendations are available in the Ombudswoman’s 2025 Report.

In 2025, the Ombudsman visited detention facilities and correctional institutions in Greenland. After the monitoring visits, the Ombudsman gives a number of recommendations to the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland and to Greenland Police. He also starts follow-up investigations of several matters. 

The recommendations concern, among other things, conditions that affect the detainees’ health and safety-related circumstances.

The Ombudsman’s recommendations to Greenland Police are thus aimed at the police’s checking on detainees and the police’s self-monitoring of the physical conditions and the electronic equipment in the detention facilities, including remedying shortcomings that affect the detainees’ safety.

In relation to the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland, the Ombudsman’s recommendations concern, among other things, screening of new inmates for suicide risk, the Prison and Probation Service’s medicines management and the inmates’ occupation.

Detainees stay a long time in police detention facilities

According to the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland, the capacity in the correctional institutions is under pressure, and that restricts the possibility of receiving detainees (remand prisoners) from the police. Even though, according to the rules, police detention facilities can generally only be used for placement of detainees for short periods, there have been detainees in recent years who have spent longer (up to several weeks and sometimes months) in police detention facilities.

In connection with the monitoring visits, the Ombudsman also found that the surveillance cameras in the detention rooms could not be switched off, with the consequence that the detainees were under electronic surveillance round the clock. The Ombudsman also found that furniture was not available in all the detention rooms that were used for detainees. For instance, one detention room, which was used for a detainee during the visit, was only furnished with a mattress on the floor.

On that basis, as part of a follow-up investigation, the Ombudsman asks the Ministry of Justice to comment on the legality of the constant camera surveillance of detainees in police detention facilities. The Ombudsman also asks whether the information on Greenland Police’s challenges with detainees’ stays in police detention facilities gives the Ministry occasion to take any action to ensure that stays take place in accordance with the rules.

‘The duration of detainees’ stays in police detention facilities and the use of camera surveillance greatly impact the detainees’ circumstances and legal rights. Therefore, further investigation of the mentioned matters is necessary so it can be ensured that the detainees are treated in accordance with their rights’, says Parliamentary Ombudsman Christian Britten Lundblad.

Female inmates placed in same unit as male inmates

Based on the monitoring visits, the Ombudsman also starts two other investigations. One is the result of the Ombudsman having found that female inmates were placed in the same closed unit as male inmates in the Correctional Institution in Nuuk. Here, the Ombudsman asks the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland to consider, among other things, the consequences that the placement has for the inmates’ access to association.

In the other investigation, the Ombudsman asks the National Police to explain what guidelines apply to the police’s use of a so-called atemi strike (hard strike to the neck).

Read the Ombudsman’s closing letters (in Danish) to the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland and Greenland Police.

Read the Ombudsman’s consultation letter to the Ministry of Justice (in Danish).

Read the Ombudsman’s consultation letter to the Prison and Probation Service in Greenland (in Danish).

Read the Ombudsman’s consultation letter to the National Police (in Danish).

Further details:

Director of International Relations Klavs Kinnerup Hede, kkh@ombudsmanden.dk

Berlin: (hib/HAU) Im Jahr 2025 sind 12.399 Petitionen beim Petitionsausschuss des Deutschen Bundestages eingereicht worden. Das geht aus dem Tätigkeitsbericht des Ausschusses für das Jahr 2025 (21/6000(Dokument, öffnet ein neues Fenster)) hervor, den die Ausschussvorsitzende Hülya Düber (CSU) am Mittwoch Bundestagspräsidentin Julia Klöckner überreicht hat. Die Gesamtzahl der Petitionen ist damit im Vergleich zu 2024 um 3.139 Petitionen (34 Prozent) angestiegen. Die meisten Eingaben bezogen sich auf den Geschäftsbereich des Bundesministeriums des Innern (1.606). 1.581 Zuschriften richteten sich an den Zuständigkeitsbereich des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales. Den Bereich des Bundesministeriums der Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz betrafen 1.571 Petitionen. Der Bundestag wird den Tätigkeitsbericht am Mittwochnachmittag beraten.

Laut dem Bericht ergibt sich bei 249 Werktagen ein täglicher Durchschnitt von etwa 50 Zuschriften. 5.807 und damit deutlich mehr als ein Drittel aller Petitionen seien auf elektronischem Wege, also als Web-Formular über www.bundestag.de(Interner Link), eingegangen. „Mit derzeit etwa 5,5 Millionen Nutzerinnen und Nutzer zählt das Petitionsportal weiterhin zu den beliebtesten Internetangeboten des Deutschen Bundestages“, schreibt der Petitionsausschuss. Es könne nicht nur für die Eingabe von Petitionen genutzt werden, sondern ermögliche es auch, veröffentlichte Petitionen elektronisch mitzuzeichnen und gemeinsam mit anderen zu diskutieren.

Im Berichtszeitraum haben sich der Vorlage zufolge 297.996 Nutzerinnen und Nutzer im Portal des Petitionsausschusses neu registriert (2024: 179.742), um eine Petition einzureichen, sie im Petitionsforum zu diskutieren oder sie durch eine Mitzeichnung zu unterstützen. Zu den im Jahr 2025 eingegangenen Petitionen seien insgesamt 511.965 Unterstützungen - teils schriftlich, teils auch elektronisch über die Petitionsplattform - verzeichnet worden (2024: 722.639).

2025 seien mit 652 Petitionen fast 58 Prozent mehr Eingaben im Internet veröffentlicht worden als im Vorjahr (413 Petitionen), heißt es weiter. Zehn der im Berichtsjahr veröffentlichten Petitionen seien dabei mehr als 30.000-mal mitgezeichnet worden und hätten damit das erforderliche Quorum für eine öffentliche Beratung der Eingabe erreicht.

Neben den grundsätzlichen Anliegen, die über das Internet oder per Post an den Ausschuss herangetragen wurden, habe sich der Petitionsausschuss ebenso mit großem Engagement den Sorgen und Nöten der Bürger gewidmet, die den Ausschuss im Einzelfall um Unterstützung baten. „Die Bearbeitung solcher persönlichen Anliegen machte für den Ausschuss mit rund 69 Prozent auch im Jahr 2025 wieder einen wichtigen Teil seiner Arbeit aus“, schreiben die Abgeordneten.

Laut dem Tätigkeitsbericht fanden im Jahr 2025 19 Sitzungen des Petitionsausschusses statt. In den Sitzungen seien insgesamt 378 Petitionen zur Einzelberatung aufgerufen worden. Viermal habe der Ausschuss im vergangenen Jahr öffentlich getagt.