In December 2025, we submitted a detailed contribution to the UN Human Rights Committee as part of its consultation on a General Comment on Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects freedom of association.
Read our submission >>
Drawing on our experience of a network of 30 civil society organisations working in 20 European countries, our submission highlights the indispensable role played by organisations working in places of detention in protecting prisoners’ lives and dignity, preventing torture and ill-treatment, combating impunity, and ensuring prisoners’ access to justice. We argue that these organisations operate at the very core of democratic accountability, yet face heightened risks of restriction, harassment and repression, particularly in closed or hard-to-access environments.
In our submission, we call on the Committee to explicitly recognise prisoners’ rights organisations as beneficiaries of heightened protection under Article 22, in light of the vulnerability of detainees and the structural imbalance of power in detention settings. To support this argument, we document recurring practices across Europe, including denial of access to places of detention, restrictions on confidential communication, funding constraints, stigmatisation and reprisals against both organisations and detainees who cooperate with them – all of which create a chilling effect with a detrimental impact on civil society and prison monitoring.
Our contribution also underlines that freedom of association is inseparable from the right to an effective remedy: where civil society is prevented from operating in prisons, victims of human rights violations are effectively deprived of legal assistance, documentation and the protection of their rights at the international level. An immediate consequence of recognising this crucial role is that granting organisations defending prisoners’ rights locus standi is a proven good practice for addressing the root causes of fundamental rights violations in prisons.
We further emphasise that prisoners themselves should be regarded as holders of the right to freedom of association. Consequently, any limitation of this right must be exceptional, demonstrably necessary and proportionate, time-bound, and subject to effective judicial review.
We invite the Human Rights Committee to seize the opportunity presented by the drafting of the General Comment to provide clear, practice-oriented guidance on States’ negative and positive obligations – including access to detention facilities, protection against reprisals, non-discrimination in funding, and strict scrutiny of restrictions formally justified on grounds of security or emergency.