News Flash
Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on
Ukraine
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Report highlights need for further action to combat ill-treatment of sentenced
prisoners
Strasbourg, 05.09.2013 – The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention
of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has published
today the report on its December 2012 ad hoc
visit to Ukraine, together with the Ukrainian authorities’
response. The main objective of the visit was
to re-examine the manner in which prisoners serving sentences were treated in
so-called “correctional colonies”.
The CPT’s report indicates that there
has been a definite improvement as regards the manner in which inmates are
treated by staff in Correctional Colony No. 89 in Dnipropetrovsk, which was
first visited by the Committee in 2009. It appears that the action taken to put
a stop to the ill-treatment of prisoners observed during the previous visit has
started to bear fruit.
Further, the treatment of sentenced women was in
general not of major concern at Kachanivska Correctional Colony No. 54 in
Kharkiv. That said, as regards the force allegedly used by staff against Yulia
Tymoshenko during her transfer to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv in
April 2012, the report raises doubts as to the effectiveness of the
investigation carried out into this case.
In contrast, as regards
Oleksiyivska Correctional Colony No. 25 in Kharkiv and Stryzhavska Correctional
Colony No. 81, near Vinnytsia, the CPT’s delegation gained the impression that
the ill-treatment of inmates had become an almost accepted feature of keeping
good order and combating prison subcultures. The means employed by staff, partly
assisted by a carefully chosen group of inmates, were apparently aimed at
obtaining submissive behaviour from all prisoners as from the outset of their
admission. The ill-treatment alleged by persons interviewed who were or had been
held at these establishments was often of such severity that it could be
considered as amounting to torture.
The CPT has recommended further
action to combat ill-treatment of inmates in correctional colonies by:
i) driving change from the highest level and developing an ethical culture among
prison staff, ii) improving staff-inmate relations (including combating corrupt
practices), iii) strengthening the role of health-care staff in the prevention
of ill-treatment, iv) better defining limits and improving training on the use
of force, v) ensuring the effectiveness of investigations into cases of possible
ill-treatment, in particular by setting up without delay a national team
specialised in the investigation of such cases, and vi) developing an effective
national preventive mechanism.
In its report, the CPT notes that the
conditions under which women serving life sentences are held have significantly
improved. However, key recommendations made in the past in respect of male
life-sentenced prisoners remain to be implemented. In this connection, the
Committee opposes the routine installation of videosurveillance cameras in cells
accommodating this category of inmate.
During the visit, the CPT’s
delegation reviewed the situation of Yulia Tymoshenko. Her material conditions
of detention were found to be of a high standard and the provision of
health-care to her at Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv does not call for
particular comments. However, the CPT urges the Ukrainian authorities to ensure
that medical confidentiality is respected with regard to Ms Tymoshenko and that
the security arrangements concerning her (which, at the time of the visit,
included placement under videosurveillance) are no more than what is strictly
required by the circumstances.
In their response, the Ukrainian
authorities provide information on steps taken to address certain of the urgent
matters raised by the CPT in its visit report, in particular the adoption of
anti-torture and anti-corruption measures in correctional colonies and other
penitentiary establishments, the results obtained by the prosecuting authorities
in the examination of alleged ill-treatment of inmates by staff and the
development of guidelines on the use of “technical means of surveillance and
control” (including videosurveillance). As regards Yulia Tymoshenko, the
Ukrainian response refers to the
judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 30 April 2013, in which
the Court found no violation of the prohibition of torture and inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.
The visit
report and the
response have been made public at the request
of the Ukrainian authorities and are available in English (and Ukrainian) on the
CPT’s website: http://www.cpt.coe.int.
