“Medical care in places of detention in Armenia is something we still have to fight for,” Irina Manukian, head of the public organization “In the Name of Freedom,” said in an interview with VirusOFF.
For the past four years, Irina Manukian has headed the public organization “In the Name of Freedom” (“Հանուն Ազատության”), an NGO in Armenia whose founders and active participants are former and current prisoners.
The mission of the organization is to help people in prisons and ex-prisoners on their way to rehabilitation. The main complaints about prison medicine in Armenia are serious chronic diseases, according to a recent monitoring study conducted by Irina and her colleagues in the colonies and prisons of their country.
“First of all, the prison system pays attention to urgent problems, such as appendicitis. But there are people with chronic problems – they are not prescribed laboratory tests, their condition is not diagnosed,” says Irina Manukian. “Often the approach is: you are sick – so be it. Maybe they will give you Analgin. There is no consistency in medical prescriptions, no one wants to coddle the patient. That is the problem. We would like to start from the principle of equality and universal access to medical services. It is too early to talk about equality in this sense”.
How have the voices of activists and human rights defenders changed?
By overcoming the post-Soviet penal model common to the EECA region, which left little room for humanism, evidence-based medicine, and respect for human rights, Armenia has been able to achieve success.
For example, the country has had a methadone substitution therapy program for drug addicts, including prisoners, for many years. The state is fully responsible for providing drugs and antiretroviral therapy in prisons. Public organizations complement these efforts in terms of prevention of socially significant diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis.
For example, in 2023, consultants from “In the Name of Freedom” conducted interactive prevention trainings in all penitentiary institutions of Armenia. Regular lectures for prisoners are not a very useful format, notes Irina Manukian: “People there are suspicious and not always educated, so we look for an approach to the group, to individuals, to find a warm contact with them. Our meetings with them are always an exchange of information, answers to their questions”.
“Live” visits to prisons give counselors the opportunity to learn about the state of affairs in places of detention and participate in solving emergency cases.
“In one of the prisons, I met a man who had been living with chronic hepatitis and heart failure for five years,” says Irina. – “He couldn’t even take a walk because his legs were so swollen. But his problems were simply ignored until we started to petition for his release on health grounds”.
The struggle goes on: what problems remain?
One of the most important achievements for the country is the reform of prison medicine and its transfer to the Ministry of Health. This is an important step towards ensuring equal access to health services for people in prison.
In the largest penitentiary institution “Armavir” a large prison hospital is under construction, which will be opened for patients in 2025. Before the official opening, Irina Manukian visited this hospital together with representatives of the Eurasian Movement for the Right to Health in Prisons and noted that the new hospital will allow diagnostics and treatment without long and complicated stages outside the system. But the first results of the hospital’s work can be summed up after several months of work.
Despite progress, problems remain. There are still no needle-exchange programs or access to HIV prevention in Armenian prisons. People with chronic diseases do not receive systematic treatment, and mistrust of the health care system remains high among prisoners.
“Health is not a privilege, it is a right,” says Irina. “It is clear that people end up in prison and live there under certain restrictions imposed by law. But since the state is responsible for the re-education of these people, it is obliged to ensure equal access to medicine. The level of medical care for prisoners should not be inferior to that of civilian hospitals. If you prevent a person from dying in prison, it does not mean that everything is well organized. We will fight so that everyone, even behind bars, can receive medical care.
The information campaign “Limitation of freedom ≠ Limitation of the right to health” emphasizes that people in prisons should have the same access to health services as people outside. Organized by the Eurasian Movement for the Right to Health in Prisons, the campaign emphasizes that restriction of freedom should not mean restriction of the right to health. Health is a universal right that belongs to everyone, regardless of social status or place of residence.
Media support: Virus OFF