Prisoners' Rights Issues in the Aspect of Human Rights Protection under the Conditions of the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic (COVID-19)

Abstract

Under the conditions of the global pandemic, the problem of international legal regulation of relations in the field of human rights and freedoms becomes extremely relevant. It must be recognized that the pandemic and its socio-economic consequences will have a disproportionate and detrimental effect on the rights of women, children, the elderly, refugees, migrants, displaced persons and the others in at-risk population group. In this situation, the problem of respect for rights of persons in detention facilities deserves special attention. After all, when a person gets into prison, he actually becomes isolated not only from the society, but also from the opportunity to exercise his constitutional rights and freedoms. The purpose of this research is to review the problem of human rights and freedoms restriction under the conditions of the global pandemic in terms of the execution of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as identification and delineation of the problem areas such as detention facilities containing prisoners who are in fact an at-risk group for the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread, and in which, despite the relative control of the whole system, it will be very difficult to stop the spread of the disease in case of its spread in these institutions. Proceeding from this goal, we want to draw attention to the observation of international legal requirements for the legitimacy of human rights and freedoms restrictions in the global pandemic, as well as the Coronavirus disease spread in detention facilities, disclose the content of international legal acts containing specific measures and recommendations, which may be useful in their implementation in the penitentiary institutions practice to prevent the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19.

Keywords

• prisoners' rights
• pandemic
• covid-19
• council of europe
• convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms
• european court of human rights