Human rights activists ask to release convicts at high risk of COVID-19
The state should develop a plan for the emergency release of convicts who are at the highest risk of contracting COVID-19. Report of the human rights movement Bir Duino — Kyrgyzstan says.
According to the data, the elderly and prisoners with mental and physical problems should be immediately considered for release in order to avoid serious consequences, if COVID-19 spreads in prisons, as well as to reduce the burden of providing basic medical services.
Bir Duino — Kyrgyzstan movement notes that the prisons of the countries need to be unloaded.
In this regard, it is necessary to provide alternatives to imprisonment in accordance with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules)," the human rights activists say.
These measures, according to the representatives of the movement, must be applied to all convicts falling under the requirements of the Tokyo Rules, and in particular to elderly convicts and persons with special needs. «So, there were three women with cancer, a woman with suspected cancer, a woman, who had suffered a stroke and is suffering from progression and exacerbation of vascular and nervous diseases that threaten her life in the prison colony No.2,» the human rights activists told.
