An Open Letter to the European Commission on Pretrial Detention

The Open Society Justice Initiative has joined 12 other groups in urging the European Commission to come forward with promised proposals to set common minimum standards for pretrial detention across the EU’s 27 member states. The letter recalls that “the pre-trial detention regime in EU member states needs urgent reform, to ensure an end to the unnecessary and often arbitrary recourse to pre-trial detention and the severe rights violations that it causes, especially when it affects juveniles, non-nationals and vulnerable groups."