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Reply to Recommendation | Doc. 14119 | 13 July 2016
The fate of critically ill detainees in Europe
1. The Committee of
Ministers has carefully examined Parliamentary Assembly Recommendation 2082 (2015)
on “The fate of critically ill detainees in Europe”. It has transmitted
the recommendation to the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDPC),
the Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH) and the European
Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CPT), for information and possible comments.
Like the Parliamentary Assembly, the Committee stresses the importance
of respecting the human rights of persons in detention.
2. The Committee of Ministers recalls the instruments of relevance
to this issue that it has adopted, first and foremost the European
Convention on Human Rights, but also non-binding instruments to
guide member States such as the European Prison Rules (Recommendation Rec(2006)2), Recommendation Rec(2003)23 on the management of life-sentence and other long-term
prisoners and Recommendation Rec(98)7 concerning the ethical and organisational aspects of
healthcare in prison. It is pleased that the Assembly refers to
them and would welcome its assistance with promoting them nationally.
3. The Committee of Ministers considers that a study as recommended
by the Parliamentary Assembly on member States’ legislation and
practice in relation to the compassionate release of prisoners and
other categories of persons in detention (paragraph 3.2 of the recommendation),
would be useful. In addition to severely ill detainees, such a study
should cover persons with severe disabilities. It could be a means
of identifying best practices and a first step towards the elaboration
of guidelines in this field if a need for this is identified at
the expert level. The Committee of Ministers will keep this in mind
in the context of its examination of the draft budget and programme
of activities for the next biennium. It will keep the Assembly informed
about any developments in this respect.
4. Meanwhile, it encourages member States to consider collecting
and sharing the statistics referred to by the Parliamentary Assembly
in paragraph 3.1 of its recommendation.