Human Rights in Closed Institutions: Observer Groups are summing up the Year

Arrestee Detention Facilities of the Police (ADF)

Suren Iskandaryan, Chairman of the Public Monitoring Group at the Detention Facilities of the RA Police, which wascreated in 2005, summarized the year of 2011 and said that there had been some achievements, however,  there are still problems and things to do.

“Today, there are fewer legislative omissions and contradictions than laws, which are not being enforced.In 2011, our work was directed towardsenforcing those laws. We will talk about omissions and contradictions later,” said the chairman of the group to www.hra.am. Iskandaryan stated that most violations are committed by investigators.

Iskandaryan stated that one of the positive changes was that due to the efforts of the monitoring group some legislative provisions, which were not enforced earlier, are now enforced. The human rights activist said that the police officers used to perform arrests and detentions in the Soviet working style which were according to their  resolve and without proper procedures as defined by law.

Iskandaryan notes that now the law is being applied as “An individual is not kept in an ADF without proper grounds and that there should be a court decision about detention to transfer the individualto a penitentiary.”

It is also a significant advancement that we have obtained police consent to post notices informing about individuals’ rights, in all the corridors and ADF cells of the police station. The notices were published by the monitoring group to inform about the rights of arrestees and also to advise them about the free hotline. The chairman of the monitoring group informed that the number of calls to the hotline increased after the notices were posted at the police stations.

According to Iskandaryan, another significant accomplishment is that the police officers who violate laws are being held liable as a result of the urgent reports submitted by the group. In past years, the violations were compiled into an annual report, and the police were unable to conduct an internal investigation because the limitation period of 3 months had expired.

“In 2010 we had 60 urgent reports, which resulted in a stern reprimand of one regional chief, two heads of police departments, 18 heads of ADFs, and 18 police officers. We even had 1 case of dismissal. 37-38 police officers received strict punishment. We did not have the same picture last year,” said Iskandaryan.

The most troubling issue which still remains is access to police departments. The committee for prevention of torture has also registered that complaint and recommended that the monitoring group have free access to any police department or room.

“We suggested that they allow us to simply register who tortures and who is tortured and leave the rest to the law enforcement bodies; however, they resisted this suggestion.. They say it can hinder the investigation and that the observer could communicate information. Although, if an observer did this, it would be punishable by law,” noted Suren Iskandaryan. He added that these are phony excuses and police is simply not ready to work transparently yet.
The human rights activist states that there is almost no torture in the ADFs, investigative activities but torture is done in the offices of investigators. “Now, we want to  have individuals taken out of the ADF only in exceptional cases and the investigative activities to be performed at arrestee detention facilities, because investigators behave differently at ADFs,” adds the chairman of the monitoring group.

The other disturbing issue is the medical care. “Except for facilities in Yerevan there are no assistant doctors in other ADFs. One of the assistant doctors in Yerevan had recorded in the journal “there is a bruise on the rear leg.” So you can imagine what the situation is like,” said Iskandaryan.         

First aid is provided through the ambulance service and according to Iskandaryan, doctors perceive the arrestees as criminals. 

Penitentiary Institutions (PI)

Artur Sakunts, President of the Group (established in 2004) of Public Observers Conducting Monitoring of Penitentiary Institutions and Agencies of the RA Ministry of Justice, has not registered any positive changes in PIs during the year 2011. On the contrary, he believes that the tendencies remain negative.

According to Sakunts, one of the general problems is that non-legal mechanisms or “unwritten laws” have a larger role in the penitentiary institutions than the acting legal norms. “The laws do not work for the simple reason the protection of inmates at PIs is not guaranteed, especially if they raise any issue,” says the president of the monitoring group. He believes that it is the reason that inmates generally prefer to keep quiet about the maltreatment towards them.    

The human rights activists are still concerned about the issue of convicts suffering from illnesses preventing from service and the omissions of the system of early conditional release, which were not resolved in 2011. 

The quality of medical service at penitentiary institutions is a serious problem which has been raised by the monitoring group and human rights organizations on several occasions.

The Human Rights Organizations argue that there is no dispensary control at PIs despite the government’s decree about it. Artur Sakunts states that the resources for medical care are not sufficient at PIs to provide adequate medical help. The situation is worse in cases of convicts with mental health issues, because there are no relevant specialists and the staff is also not prepared to work with people with mental health issues.

Sakunts states that in particular, the Nubarashen Penitentiary is a big issue. The human rights activist has stated several times that the extremely bad conditions at this PI degrade human dignity, and are equal to inhumane treatment. He believes that the best solution is closing the institution, because basic renovations will not provide normal conditions.

The report of the monitoring group states that the Nubarashen PI, which is the largest in Armenia, does not correspond to national or international legal requirements. In 2009, this was the only institution, where the inmates did not have individual sleeping beds and had to take turns in order to sleep.

Artur Sakunts believes that the head of the Department of Corrections should not be appointed by the RA President but rather by the Minister of Justice, otherwise the subordination of the department to the ministry is only a ceremonial one.

“Sometimes, we receive two different responses to the same urgent report: one from the Ministry of Justice and one from the Department of Corrections,” states the president of the monitoring group.

The human rights activist considers responses to the urgent reports to be inadequate. “They try to justify the system of corrections with various rationalizations rather than trying to solve the issue.”

As early as the beginning of the year, the Group of Public Observers Conducting Monitoring of PIs presented a package of recommendations to the Ministry of Justice regarding reforms in the corrections system. The ministry responded by saying that they would take the recommendations into consideration. The year is ending and it is still unclear to the monitoring group as to whether the recommendations have been taken into consideration and if they have, which recommendations have been implemented.

Mary Aleksanyan
Source: www.hra.am