The Impact of the Council of Europe on Conditions of Detention in the Western Balkan Prisons

In any country, prisoner treatment is directly proportional with respect for human rights. After the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, the Western Balkan (Balkan) states of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia (Macedonia) embarked on internationally sponsored penal reforms. The Council of Europe (CoE) helped to ensure that a more humane treatment of the prisoner replaced the harsh prison conditions under communism. As such, Balkan states have committed themselves to improve prison conditions and adopt a new penal paradigm, but the CoE’s core recommendations of making prison practices more humane have been only partially met and vital aspects of prison life do not reach the CoE-recommended bar. This article assesses prison conditions in the five non-European Union (EU) Balkan countries for compatibility with the CoE prison standards from 2000 to the early 2020s. Based on interviews with key actors in the prison reform in the Balkans, it argues that the CoE has had limited leverage in the region.