For several years the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has been gaining experience in handling cases related to the shortcomings of penitentiary health care in Poland. Foundation believes that insufficient medical care in prisons and detention centers constitutes one of the most series human rights violation concerning detained persons. Foundation has conducted strategic litigation in several cases before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, including cases Dzieciak v. Poland, Sł.Musiał v. Polska and Wierzbicki v. Poland. These landmark cases as well as letters pouring to Foundation concerning prisons-related cases led to the creation of a new program entitled “Healthcare in Polish prisons – in search for compliance with human rights’ standards.”
The main objective of this project is to deal with the problem of insufficient access to medical care in penitentiary units. Action should be taken on several levels and within a longer period of time in order to resolve issues concerning inadequate health care of detainees, such as lack of comprehensive medical examination when a given person is admitted to the prison or detention facility, lack of sufficient legal mechanisms allowing for medical treatment during the breaks between periods of imprisonment, insufficient medical service for old-age prisoners, and the problem of double payment for medical services by retired prisoners or detainees, just to name a few examples.
Project “Healthcare in Polish prisons – in search for compliance with human rights’ standards” will involve three main pillars: Medical Law Clinic, advocacy and strategic litigation.
Medical Law Clinic is an entirely new idea. Within the frames of the Clinic students of the Faculty of Law of the Warsaw University and the Warsaw Medical University will examine complaints addressed to Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (“HFHR”) by detainees. In selected cases Foundation will undertake interventions. It will be particularly interested in cases regarding the possibility of specialist treatment of prisoners, the speed of access to medical specialists, the possibility for the treatment of prisoners in facilities outside the prison, treatment of people with mental disabilities, treatment of older people as well as these, where we see any discrimination in access to medical service. The functioning of the Clinic will be coordinated by two professionals: a physician and a lawyer. Moreover, students will attend weekly seminars and lectures delivered by both Program Coordinators. During the seminars students will discuss reviewed cases, both from legal and medical perspective.
Advocacy will aim at resolving selected problems which cause current insufficient access to medical care in penitentiary units. Foundation plans to organize seminars and lectures on specific issues related to the field. They will be addressed to medical doctors, officers of the prison service, penitentiary judges, academics and journalists and above all, public officers responsible for introducing relevant reforms in that sector. Every meeting will be followed by a publicly available official document, as well as a set of recommendations.
The third pillar will be strategic litigation. Among cases addressed to the Medical Law Clinic, Foundation plans to choose 3 cases per year (6 in general), which will concern the most important, in our opinion, human rights violations.
Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights hopes that the project “Healthcare in Polish prisons – in search for compliance with human rights’ standards” will trigger an effective and comprehensive reform of the health service in the Polish penitentiary units. The Foundation also believes that the project in general will lead to the rise of social awareness regarding human rights violations of prisoners held in penitentiary units.
