Armenian human rights activist raises problems of closed institutions
11:52, May 28, 2014 | News, Other news
All the closed institutions in Armenia – orphanages, nursing homes, mental hospitals – have a number of system problems, human rights activist Artur Sakunts told Tert.am.
The first problem is hygiene and sanitary conditions, medical care and mistreatment.
“The inmates cannot raise their problems themselves. We have no efficient mechanisms of lodging complaints. Even if they complain about anything, they are mostly persuaded to withdraw their complaints or repudiate,” Sakunts said.
“The government has responsibility for persons in terms of dignity, protection of rights, medical care. However, the opposite is taking place. We are witnessing degrading treatment,” the expert added.
Addressing individual cases, Sakunts said that they are evidence of the system “ailing,” with no remedy available.
“That is, the necessary reforms supposed to improve the situation are not implemented. Personnel retraining is an urgent task. We have monitoring groups in penitentiaries, but the Ministry of Justice is not properly considering the problems they are raising. Our supervision system is not efficient,” Sakunts said.
The government has not yet the will to implement reforms, he added.
With respect to fatalities in Armenia’s closed institutions, Sakunts said that most cases are not even investigated.
“Even when investigation is launched in exceptional cases, we do not consider the process of calling those guilty to account satisfactory. We also need efficient investigation and judicial supervision,” he said.
He also stressed numerous problems in comprehensive schools, which are mostly concealed. Impunity in schools is actually the cause of such way of thinking.