Enhancing Health care and Human Rights protection in prisons in Armenia

This 30-months project is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022. It is implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and the Penitentiary Medicine Center.

The aim of the project is to further support the national authorities in reforming healthcare provision and human rights for sentenced persons in Armenia in line with the European standards.

Attention will be given to the following three areas:

enhancing regulatory and operational framework for provision of in line with European standards;
improvement of the material conditions and the provision of healthcare in prisons;
capacity building of the Penitentiary Medicine Centre (PMC).

The project will particularly focus on the improvement of prison healthcare services through introduction of new technologies in healthcare services, such as telemedicine and electronic database system of medical records, ensuring protection of healthcare rights of mentally-ill persons in penitentiary institutions, improvement of preventive healthcare, particularly sanitary-epidemiological and hygienic conditions and control mechanism, modernizing hospital/specialized medical care and services in the penitentiary institutions. Project activities should significantly contribute to improving effectiveness, transparency and accountability of penitentiary prison healthcare in general and the PMC in particular. Proper documentation and reporting on indications of torture, ill-treatment, inhumane and degrading treatment will stay in focus and addressed.

The amount devoted to this project is 750,000 Euros and its implementation started in November 2019 to end in December 2022.

Project documentation

Useful information

PROJECT NEWS

Back Q&A coaching session on piloting the toolkit for the prevention of suicide and self-harm in pilot prisons in Armenia

Staff working in three pilot prisons (Armavir, Abovyan and Kosh) chosen for piloting a toolkit for prevention of suicide and self-harm provided feedback on this tool with the aim to further improving and finalizing it. The agenda of the Q&A coaching session was based on the questions the participants faced when applying the toolkit.

The need for unified guidelines on using the toolkit was specifically underlined during the piloting phase. It was agreed that this type of guidelines will enhance the capacity of the staff dealing with it and will ensure the efficiency of its application. It was also agreed that such guidelines will be also very helpful for the new staff members working with the toolkit.

Another agreement reached during the Q &A session was that not only the staff on duty, but also the supervisors should be trained on the main features of the toolkit in order to understand better its aim, its importance, when it should be used, what should be done when a risk is identified etc.

The session has been also attended by representatives of Ministry of Justice and “Penitentiary Medicine Centre” SNCO.

The Q&A session took place on 9 November within the framework of the project “Enhancing health care and human rights protection in prisons in Armenia” implemented by the Council of Europe and financed by the Action Plan for Armenia 2019 -2022.

Armenia 15 November 2021