Human rights and non-governmental organizations urge the international community to take urgent measures to stop the catastrophic consequences of the spread of coronavirus infection in prisons in the occupied Crimea. This appeal is published on the website of the Center for Civil Liberties.
The statement notes that although the Russian Federation stopped long and temporary meetings with relatives to prevent the spread of the disease among suspects, at the same time in the penitentiary administrations there is no way to implement the measures recommended by WHO to prevent the spread of coronavirus. In places of deprivation of liberty there are not enough personnel, medical qualification and necessary medical equipment.
“Moreover, they are the most at-risk facilities for the transmission of infectious diseases. These facilities are often poorly ventilated. Cleaning is done as usual. Detainees continue to be at risk of infection through daily work, fees, showers, and ather activities. They cannot follow hand hygiene instructions. Prison system workers come in contact with a large number of detainees daily, conduct a personal review of people and cell searches. Masks for people with respiratory diseases symptoms for both detainees and staff are unavailable”,- human rights activists noted.
Activists demand an urgent response from international organizations, namely, the UN, the Council of Europe, the European Union, the OSCE and their participating countries in order to:
– Call on the Russian Federation to take urgent measures to fulfill their international obligations to protect the life and health of detainees.
– Call on the Russian Federation to urgently reduce the prison population.
– Council of Europe bodies, in particular the Committee of Ministers, the Secretary General and the Commissioner for Human Rights, must quickly adopt recommendations in order to encourage the Russian Federation with its 140 million people to take these decisive steps.
– All international organizations with monitoring, judicial and quasi-judicial mechanisms for observing fundamental human rights should take exceptional organizational measures in order to be able to fully play their part during a pandemic.
– International organizations, and in particular, the OSCE at the next meeting on March 25 of the tripartite contact group in Minsk, should raise the issue of the immediate provision by the Russian Federation of unhindered access to the occupied Crimea and Donbass for international intergovernmental organizations.