On 22 January, the SPERU project presented online a set of recommendations aimed at improving the delivery of healthcare in prisons and the inter-agency cooperation on the matter between the State Department of Execution of Criminal Sanctions of Ukraine and the Centre of Prison Healthcare. The presentation benefitted from an active participation of the Head of the Centre, the State Department’s deputy Director and a representative of the Council of Europe Department for execution of judgements of the ECtHR, who emphasised the importance of an adequate medical assistance in the Ukrainian penitentiary institutions.

In the words of Mr Vasyljev, Head of the Centre of Prison Healthcare: “The recommendations will assist to improve the inter-agency coordination between the prison administrations and medical staff on provision of the healthcare, access thereto and will influence the speed of the decision-making process for the protection of lives of inmates”.

The recommendations cover inter-agency coordination and cooperation in the organisation and delivery of medical treatment towards safeguarding the health and lives of inmates by reducing the risks of poor coordination, unclear rules and/or eventual unethical behaviour in institutions concerned. These recommendations are anchored in Council of Europe standards, international standards and good international practices on the treatment of inmates.

For a practical application of the recommendations, amendments to the coordination protocol between the two institutions concerned are put forward.

This activity was organised within the EU and Council of Europe Joint Project "Support to Prison Reform in Ukraine – JP-SPERU", which is designed to promote human rights compliant management of prisons, including better alignment of prison healthcare provisions with European standards.