OSCE Office organizes training course on monitoring right to health in Armenian detention facilities

TSAKHKADZOR, Armenia, 21 September 2009 - An OSCE Office-supported training course on the right to health and international standards in Armenia's detention facilities ended in Tsakhkadzor today.

Members of the Public Monitoring Groups for Penitentiary Institutions and Police Detention Centres and observer trainees participated in the two-day course, organized by non-governmental organization Civil Society Institute and funded by the OSCE Office in Yerevan in partnership with the OSI Armenia, OSI Budapest Human Rights and Governance Grants Program and OSI New York Law and Health Initiative.

"Monitoring of the detention facilities is the best instrument to safeguard the right to health of detainees," said Ambassador Sergey Kapinos, the Head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan. "All components of the right to health, including access to doctors, equivalence of care, patients' consent, confidentiality and professional competence should be taken into consideration by the groups as well as by the responsible bodies in penitentiary institutions. We believe that this training will raise the professional capacity of the public observers and foster better compliance to rules of treatment and international human rights standards on the conditions of penitentiary institutions."

The local and international trainers delivered courses on international standards of the right to health, national mechanisms and international best practices of harm reduction in detention facilities. As part of the course the participants visited penitentiaries and pre-trial detention centres to learn about and monitor conditions of the detainees.

"The training course aims to enhance the monitoring skills of the observers by providing international experience on protecting the right to health of detainees and prisoners, and hence contribute to more effective monitoring," added Arman Danielyan, the head of the Public Monitoring Group for Penitentiary Institutions.

A similar five-day training course on the principles of human right monitoring in penitentiaries will be held in October, and trainees will be selected to become new members of the Public Monitoring Group for Penitentiary Institutions.

The OSCE Office has promoted the public oversight of Armenian penitentiary institutions and police detention centres as part of human rights protection activities.