Health in places of detention represents the health of the population of the Republic of Moldova, public health. There is always a risk that diseases will be transmitted to the community through the agency of persons who visit these places, including employees of penitentiary institutions. The situation and specific features of the persons who are in places of detention should be marked with a red line in all the national policies and strategies of the Ministry of Health, said representatives of the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) and the Health and Community Development Center (AFI) that implemented the project “Advocacy for Better Management of Health Crisis”.
In a news conference hosted by IPN, lawyer Valerian Mămăligă, IDOM expert, said the project has been implemented starting with July 2022. In the period, advocacy activities and activities to encourage a political dialogue with the interested parties and the public authorities of the Republic of Moldova were conducted and recommendations were formulated. The COVID-19 pandemic generated critical situations. The employees of law enforcement agencies, including personnel of prisons, closed-type institutions, faced specific challenges. These situations are primarily accentuated in police remand units, penitentiaries, placement centers for persons with disabilities, social residential institutions, etc.
“In 2021, IDOM paid monitoring visits to closed-type institutions and identified a series of violations and irregularities. There was presented a report with recommendations for the Government for remedying the situation. We do not want violations caused somehow by this pandemic to be witnessed. Respectively, we proposed that the authorities should adopt regulations for the rights of the persons in these institutions to be respected,” stated Valerian Mămăligă.
Svetlana Doltu, director of the public association AFI, said the given project is part of a regional initiative. Similar projects were implemented in Armenia, Georgia. Besides national activities, a transfer of experience between the beneficiary states of the project was ensured. Only the meeting of the international standards can be an efficient response to challenges in Moldova, which is a small country with limited resources. “The infection does not choose either you are a detainee or an employee. That’s why the infection control measures need comprehensive and balanced implementation for respecting not only the rights of beneficiaries, such as prisoners, but also employees’ right to health,” explained Svetlana Doltu.
Lawyer Alexandru Cebanaș, a consultant for the monitoring and reporting program of the Moldovan Institute for Human Rights, said the international human rights institutions noted that restrictions in times of a pandemic are necessary, but they should not be proportional, while the human rights should not be neglected. It is often determined that many problems can be solved by minimum effort and will if the interaction between responsible authorities is not absent.
The project “Advocacy for Better Management of Health Crisis” forms part of the “Eastern Partnership - COVID-19 Solidarity” Program that was launched by the Helsinki Committee of the Netherlands with financial support from the European Union and in partnership with People in Need and AFEW International.
Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.
