URUGUAY: Notorious juvenile detention centre to be closed

Submitted by crinadmin on


[12 July 2008] – A juvenile detention centre in Uruguay is to be closed following allegations that those held there suffered appalling violence and living conditions. The centre, el Hogar SER, in Colonia Berro, will stop receiving inmates from August 1st and will transfer the young people currently held there, as well as staff charged with their care, in preparation for the centre’s closure.

The President of the INAU which runs the centre, Víctor Giorgi, said that there had been an investigation in 2003 by international authorities, “which recommended the closure” and since then the centre’s history has been extremely negative.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child - Uruguay, a Uruguayan coalition of NGOs which presented a report recommending the centre's closure in March, has been monitoring detention conditions for 10 years, and in November 2006 presented a report on the issue to the Inter-American Commission. Civil society organisations in Argentina, Chile and Brazil have expressed similar concerns about conditions in their countries. The Inter-American Commission is currently conducting a thematic study on juvenile justice in Latin America.

Further information

Country: 
Uruguay
Issues: 
Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment
Violence: 
Torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment