What problems do people face in temporary detention centers and other special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan?
Monitoring of special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which include temporary detention facilities (TDF), special receivers for administratively arrested (SRAA) and distribution receivers (DR), is one of the main activities of Kazakhstani human rights defenders represented by participants of the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM).
As a rule, suspects of crimes, administratively arrested persons, as well as persons who do not have a certain place of residence (documents), citizenship or are subject to forced expulsion from the country are held in such places.
During 2019, NPM participants carried out 174 monitoring visits, and in 2020 they visited 158 special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
As a result of preventive visits, human rights defenders noted a satisfactory level of observance of the rights of persons held in special institutions. However, in terms of other areas - housing, sanitary and hygienic conditions and medical services - the situation remains insufficient.
For example, in some institutions there are no toilets and basic conditions for taking a shower, and the living space does not meet the minimum standards. In addition, there are often complaints about poor lighting, poor material and household equipment and a lack of overhaul.
Often the issue with poor nutrition doesn’t change. Thus, in a number of institutions, not only poor quality of food is noted, but also lack of access to drinking water, which is a serious violation of the rules approved in Kazakhstan.
The medical care of persons held in closed institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan is also requires attention. Against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, the public paid special attention to the quality of the health care system, and this, in turn, once again exposed the problem of poor-quality medical care for the detainees. In particular, human rights activists note a critical shortage of medical workers and medicines, which has not changed for many years.
Also, it is impossible to leave behind the issue of the statistics of suicides committed in temporary detention facilities. This topic requires particularly close attention, since here we are talking not just about possible violations of human rights, but about a set of factors leading to suicides.
In this regard, human rights activists recommended the leadership of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan to monitor committed suicides in order to identify objective causes and develop measures to prevent such cases. In particular they recommend to train current employees on the basics of diagnostics of suicidal behavior of suspects and accused.
Analysis of reports on visits to special institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 2020 leads to conclude that there is still a failure to implement most of the recommendations of the NPM participants aimed at improving conditions of detention and increasing the level of implementation of the rights of detainees.
Further persistent work of human rights defenders and measures to strengthen their status (including infrastructure and financial support), which since recently have been gradually implemented by the Government, can change the situation.