About the project

Twenty years ago, on 26 October 2000, the European Court of Human Rights solemnly affirmed, in a judgment in the case of Kudla v. Poland, the right of every person in prison to conditions of detention consistent with respect for human dignity. This entailed an obligation for states to ensure that the health of the individual is adequately ensured, in particular through the provision of the necessary medical care, and that imprisonment is carried out in decent living conditions. Beyond health and conditions of detention, over the last twenty years the European Court has developed a prison law which encompasses almost all aspects of life behind bars: security and discipline, family ties, contact with the outside world, access to information, the right to vote, etc.

On the anniversary of the Kudla judgment, formerly incarcerated people, human rights defenders and academics joined together to report on the achievements of this case law and its effects on daily life in European prisons. Through a series of multimedia events to be released until 26 October 2021, they will give the floor to actors of the prison world across Europe: protagonists of the Kudla case, people in prison, activists, lawyers, prison staff, judges, and researchers who will analyse the stakes of the recognition of prisoners’ rights, its results, its limits and future perspectives…