2023-07-12 15:32:21
In connection with another death of a police prisoner in Belarus, human rights activists issued a joint statement. They noted that imprisonment as punishment for the lawful exercise of the rights guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, together with the right to freedom of thought and expression (Article 19), is unlawful.
Human rights defenders reminded that Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that the right to life is an inalienable right of every person.
The human rights community noted that what Ales Pushkin He was not the first to die in prison.
“Every day, thousands of prisoners in Belarusian prisons suffer from improper conditions of detention, including violation of the constitutional right to health care. Moreover, prisoners die every year in prisons due to lack of proper medical care.
Human rights defenders regularly report on the lack of proper medical examination, qualified medical personnel and non-provision of medical assistance. Detention of some political prisoners in incommunicado conditions (without contact with relatives and lawyers) calls into question the satisfactory state of their health and is an unacceptable practice that violates human rights,” human rights activists noted.
They emphasized that serving a sentence in solitary confinement should not deprive prisoners of access to specialized high-tech medical care.
“In addition, we note the availability of notices about the introduction by the order of the Department of Corrections dated April 29, 2023 of a restriction (in fact, a ban) on the transfer of medical drugs to persons placed in custody, with the exception of vitamins and insulins of foreign production.”
Human rights defenders state that the Republic of Belarus does not fulfill its obligations to ensure that the right to life is adequately protected by law and ensured in practice, which leads to such tragedies.
According to the calculations of human rights activists, at the end of 2022 there were at least 25 pensioners, as well as at least 74 persons with disabilities and serious illnesses among political prisoners. The oldest political prisoner, 75-year-old Natalya Taran, was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. She has not yet been released.
“We also want to emphasize that failure to provide medical care is used by the authorities as a form of pressure on political prisoners, which is unacceptable and can be considered torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment.”
Human rights activists called:
The General Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus and the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus to initiate a criminal case based on the fact of the death of Ales Pushkin, to conduct an objective and comprehensive investigation to determine the causes of this tragedy and to inform the public about its results; to conduct an inspection regarding other cases of violation of conditions of detention and the right to health care in places of deprivation of liberty, including checking the availability of qualified medical personnel and appropriate equipment; employees of penitentiary institutions, other state institutions that carry out forced isolation (ICU, TIP, pre-trial detention center, etc.), and their management — to comply with the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and its international obligations to ensure the protection of life and health of persons deprived of liberty and in isolation .
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