In relation to an alarming-call addressed to the hotline of the Office of the Human Rights Defender, the representatives of the department of the Human Rights Defender’s Office acting as a National Preventive Mechanism, conducted a rapid response visit to the “Hospital of Convicts” penitentiary institution of the Ministry of Justice of Armenia.
During the visit, the representatives of the Human Rights Defender registered that a detained foreign citizen registered in the psychiatric department of the “Hospital of Convicts” penitentiary institution was kept in solitary confinement in a closed regime zone, where he received treatment against his will.
According to the decision that a violation of rights had occurred, the Human Rights Defender registered that the state did not provide for the necessary and sufficient conditions for the detained foreign citizen during their deprivation of liberty in the penitentiary institution; moreover, the state did not provide contact with relatives, proper provision of involuntary psychiatric help and services, communication in the person's native or other understandable language, and proper examination and recording of injuries, as a result of which the rights to health care, personal integrity, maintaining contact with the outside world, as well as the rights not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment have been violated.
In their decision that a violation of rights had occurred, the Human Rights Defender recorded that the detained person was forcibly hospitalized without his consent and other necessary legal basis, and was subjected to medical intervention- application of tranquilizing drugs and solitary confinement against his will and without proper justifications. As a result, the detained person was deprived of the opportunity to make his own decision on the medical intervention on his body, violating his rights to physical and mental integrity and health care.
The hospitalization and the involuntary treatment of the detained person in the psychiatric department of the “Hospital of Convicts” penitentiary institution was carried out in gross violations of the requirements of the legislation, which also led to the violation of the person's right not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
It was also revealed that after the detained person’s suicide attempt at Armavir penitentiary institution, he was not properly examined by medical specialists and did not receive proper medical care; he was only examined only 4 days after the incident. A risk assessment of the probability of the person committing suicide was not conducted by the medical staff.
Moreover, in relation to the hospitalization in the psychiatric department of the “Hospital of Convicts” penitentiary institution, the risk posed by the detained person (including to their own or other persons' life or health) was not assessed. Additionally, the consequences of not effectively organizing the treatment of a person without hospitalization, the circumstances of delaying psychiatric care and endangering a person's life, health, or their surrounding were not properly assessed.
The Human Rights Defender also registered that in case of the absence of the consent of the detained person during inpatient admission, the person was not subjected to a psychiatric commission examination within 72 hours and the process of starting involuntary treatment was not initiated.
The grounds of keeping the person in solitary confinement were not registered in the medical records history, and the relevant and reasoned decision by the psychiatric commission or the psychiatrist were also not registered in the medical records.
By the decision that a violation has occurred, a decision was made by the Acting Head of the penitentiary institution to keep the detained person isolated in the closed regime section of the hospital; this decision was made without sufficient grounds.
The Human Rights Defender also registered that the detained foreign citizen was not properly informed in a language understandable to them, through a translator about the rights of persons with mental health issues, their restrictions, as well as the nature of the mental health issue suffered by them, the purpose of the proposed treatment, its methodology, its duration, and on the side effects and expected results, and the consequences of refusing psychiatric care and services.
During his stay in the penitentiary institution, the communication of the detained persons with his family members was not ensured, which violated his right to maintain contact with the outside world.
Proper conditions of detention were not ensured in the “Hospital of Convicts” penitentiary institution. Bedding and dishes were not provided; they were only provided after the intervention of the representatives of the Human Rights Defender.
The monitoring conducted by the Office of the Human Rights Defender, acting as a National Preventive Mechanism, proves that such practice is widespread.
The analysis demonstrates that the violations are the results of hospitalizing persons and subjecting them to involuntary treatment, not following the procedures of applying restraints, not registering the injuries sustained by persons, not providing communication in the person's native or other understandable language, not ensuring contact with the outside world, not ensuring proper conditions of detention, and the low level of awareness about these facts and the lack of proper oversight by the Ministry of Justice.
According to the decision of the Human Rights Defender, violations were registered in the acts of the competent persons of the administrations of the penitentiary institutions of the Ministry of Justice and the "Prison Medical Center" SNCO at the same time. In this regard, the following were suggested to the Ministry of Justice:
1) In relation to violations of a detained persons’ rights, to immediately carry out a study in order to resolve the issue of responsibility of the administrations of the penitentiary institutions and the "Prison Medical Center" SNCO,
2) to exclude the practice of involuntary hospitalization of persons deprived of their liberty without their written consent as well as in the absence of relevant sufficient grounds,
3) to exclude the violations of the procedures related to involuntary treatment provided for by the law for persons with mental health problems who are deprived of their liberty, when the relevant ground for it exits,
4) raise the awareness of the competent medical staff of the relevant subdivisions of the "Prison Medical Center" SNCO about the grounds, procedures, duration, importance of justification for the use of restraints on persons deprived of liberty with mental health problems,
5) to regularly carry out awareness raising activities and regular training courses for the relevant subdivisions of the "Prison Medical Center" SNCO and the administrations of the penitentiary institutions on the legal bases and procedures for the implementation of voluntary and involuntary treatment, in order to exclude cases of repeated violations of the rights of persons with mental health issues,
6) to make decisions regarding solitary confinement of persons deprived of their liberty by the administrations of penitentiary institutions only in case of sufficient and necessary grounds for it,
7) to carry out proper medical supervision of persons deprived of liberty after incidents and suicide attempts in penitentiary institutions, including medical examination, proper registering of the injuries suffered by the persons deprived of their liberty, and to provide the necessary amount of medical assistance,
8)to take measures to ensure the realization of the rights of the persons deprived of their liberty, including the rights to medical care and service, and involvement of an appropriate translator to communicate in a language understandable to them.
9) to establish strict control over the provision of bedding and utensils in the "Hospital of Convicts" penitentiary institution to persons deprived of their liberty.
The decision has also been addressed to the Prosecutor General of Armenia, and to the Migration Service of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia.
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