Samenvatting

Executive summary
This paper about the recently ratified Treaty on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TTSP) and the execution of sentences imposed by judgments between Brazil and the Netherlands aims to explore best
practices and potential obstacles concerning its implementation. This is based on the experiences of the countries Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom (UK) and Brazilian authorities.
In chapter 1, an understanding of the Treaty's background and potential motives for its establishment is obtained through an exploratory and inductive desk-research and secondary literature
analysis.
The backbone of this paper is established by having conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with state officials from Brazil, Portugal, Spain and the UK in order to obtain detailed information on the functioning of their TTSP's in practice. These processes are analyzed in three case studies in chapter 2 with the aim to identify best practices. The same chapter also provides a general workflow from which the Netherlands can deduce how the transfer procedure of a Dutch sentenced person will function.
In the last chapter the paper presents the recent developments on the decision-making around the implementation of the Dutch TTSP with Brazil. It is concluded with a SWOT-analysis which is based on
the identified complications in the case studies and the recent developments concerning the implementation of the TTSP between Brazil and the Netherlands. On the basis of the analytical work, a
framework of general recommendations of best practices is formulated.
Based on the experiences of other European countries and the decision-making in the Netherlands, the following conclusions are drawn. Portugal lets a transfer process run its course and does not
proactively follow-up procedures. It therefore takes them around three years to transfer a sentenced person. Spain and the UK generally take around one to two years to transfer a person as they
proactively follow-up procedures. A transfer procedure under the Dutch TTSP with Brazil will most likely be a very long and
bureaucratic process and its enforcement will be a great challenge. It is expected that few people will actually qualify for a transfer under a regular TTSP. There is a possibility to implement the same
practices as Spain and the UK, or to enforce other alternatives, in order to accelerate the process. This way the Treaty can be implemented more effectively. Specific procedures under article 14 of the TTSP for criminal fugitives will also face a long duration, though due to its higher priority it is expected that
these will obtain more positive results.