On
April 12, an interdepartmental discussion was held in the Human Rights
Defender's Office regarding the state of ensuring the rights of persons
deprived of their liberty in court cells, and the steps to be taken in the
direction of practical and legislative solutions to the existing problems.
In
practice, issues often arise as to which state body should be responsible for
placing detainees in court cells, providing them with appropriate conditions of
detention, including providing appropriate food and medical care, maintaining
their health, and ensuring their safety in the court building.
Representatives
of the Ministry of Justice of RA, the Police of the Ministry of Internal
affairs, Investigative Committee, Judicial Department and Penitentiary Service
took part in the meeting.
The
representatives of the competent state bodies presented the steps taken in the
direction of the settlement of the issues discussed during the meeting held on
January 31, 2024, outlined short-term and long-term ways of an effective
solution, and once again emphasized the need to develop relevant legislative
regulations.
The
Head of Department for Prevention of Torture and Ill-Treatment of the
Defender's Office Laura Gasparyan and the Head of the Civil, Socio-Economic and
Cultural Rights Protection Department Vladimir Hovhannisyan presented the
problems recorded by the Defender during monitoring visits and different
complaints regarding the protection of the rights of persons deprived of their
liberty in court cells, the conditions of detention, which were also summarized
in the 2023 Annual Report on the activity of the Human Rights Defender as a
National Preventive Mechanism.
"The
lack of clear legal regulations leads to problems related to ensuring the
rights of persons deprived of their liberty. We have recorded cases when a
person deprived of liberty was in the court cell for 12 hours, he did not have
the opportunity to take food, he could not get the prescribed medicine due to
the lack of appropriate conditions. Therefore, it is necessary that all these
issues be properly and clearly regulated by legislation," Laura Gasparyan
stated.
Another
issue is the organization of legal assistance for a person deprived of liberty
in a counseling procedure. The legislation does not properly regulate the
structures of persons deprived of liberty to receive the necessary legal
assistance while they are kept in court cells, which may violate the
constitutional right of a person.
Such
inter-departmental meetings will be continuous in order to highlight the
existing problems in the field of human rights protection, to effectively
cooperate with the responsible departments and to provide appropriate solutions
to the issues reported by the Human Rights Defender.
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