A roundtable took place in Yerevan on 30 May to discuss a detailed overview of the assessment of prison hospital services in Armenia and a list of recommendations for their improvement.
The event brought together 29 representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Penitentiary Department, Ministry of Health and Ombudsman Office, as well as members of the Public Monitoring Group and civil society in Armenia. They were joined by consultants from the Council of Europe (CoE).
The country’s Deputy Minister of Justice briefly presented the recent reforms carried out in the field of primary healthcare in prisons and emphasised that, as a result of the ongoing reforms, polyclinic services in penitentiary institutions will provide the same level of services as in civilian healthcare facilities.
The international consultants presented the key problems identified and main solutions suggested from the viewpoint of the CoE and other international standards, while local experts provided a legal analysis of the current healthcare regulations and public healthcare implications, supported by statistical data received from the penitentiary authorities.
The roundtable was organised within the project “Strengthening healthcare and human rights protection in prisons in Armenia”, funded under the joint EU/CoE Partnership for Good Governance framework.
