27 deaths in one year: The situation in Armenia's penitentiaries is alarming

According to the "Haykakan Jamanak" newspaper, "In the last year, 27 people have died in Armenia's penitentiary institutions. The newspaper officially learned from the Ministry of Justice of Armenia that 10 of these deaths were suicides, while 17 inmates died due to health problems linked to illnesses that are often clearly incompatible with being held in custody.

These figures are not merely statistics. They represent 27 human destinies and raise 27 questions to the state, which have not been answered to date. Even more concerning is the fact that both the judges who imposed the detention and the medical staff in the penitentiary institutions were aware of these illnesses. Moreover, many of those who died in prison had not even been convicted; they were held in pre-trial detention while the presumption of innocence still applied, yet this right did not save them from death.

Of course, the law appears to provide for everything. The 5th point of the 1st part of Article 10 of the Penal Code of the Republic of Armenia guarantees the right of detained persons to receive medical assistance. Further, point 101 of the government's decree N825 dated May 26, 2006, also provides for the possibility of utilizing the services of specialists from civilian medical institutions of their own choice. However, these legal guarantees often remain only on paper, and in reality, a detainee is deprived of the medical assistance necessary to preserve their right to life.

Justice Minister Surbhi Galyan speaks of a "reformed penal system," a "human-centered policy," and emphasizes that in Armenia, a person is the highest value. At this moment, the question arises: is she referring to the same Armenia where, on average, three people die every month in prison? If 27 deaths were recorded in prison in any European country within a year, the issue would become a subject of serious political and legal discussion. However, in Armenia, silence prevails. Silence reigns among international organizations that regularly make statements from the highest podiums about human rights protection, as well as among the Ombudsman of Armenia.

Silence also characterizes those organizations that are usually quick to comment on Armenia's domestic political processes at any opportunity. Numerous human rights defenders, who previously raised alarms over the slightest incident related to human rights violations, remain silent as well. Most tragically, there is no accountability following these deaths; there are no systemic evaluations, and there are no officials who are held accountable for why it was possible to prevent these deaths, yet they occurred.

If the state is unable to ensure the protection of the lives and health of individuals under its complete control, then this is not merely a separate tragedy; it marks a systemic failure. A penitentiary institution is a place for serving a sentence or executing a measure of restraint, not a death waiting room," the article states.

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