On November 16-17, the OSCE Center in Ashgabat, together with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE / ODIHR), organized a seminar on the protection of human rights in prisons.
As reported on the website of the organization, experts Laura Jaffrey from the OSCE / ODIHR office in Warsaw and Olivia Rope of Penal Reform International have presented the international standards, paying particular attention to the treatment of women prisoners .
Experts Zhanna Nazarova and Maya Tulendieva from Kazakhstan, Victor Zakharia from Moldova and Ruslan Romanov from Kyrgyzstan shared their national experience in developing the probation system and discussed the implementation of the legal rights and freedoms of prisoners, security in prisons and staff training.
The seminar was organized for representatives of the Mejlis (lower house) of the Milli Gengesh (parliament), the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of National Security, the State Migration and Border Services, the Supreme Court, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Bar Association and the Institute of State, Law and Democracy.
“Penitentiary staff must have the necessary knowledge to carry out their duties and undergo appropriate training to ensure that their knowledge and skills are up to date. This is especially important for staff working with special groups of prisoners, such as minors and youth, women and people with mental disabilities, as well as prisoners in high security colonies, ”said John McGregor, head of the OSCE Center in Ashgabat .
During the discussions, the issues of the importance of protecting the health of prisoners and countering the spread of COVID-19 in the institutions of the penal system were discussed.
The OSCE Center recalls that since 2009, in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it has organized a number of seminars and training courses on the rights of prisoners and other aspects related to the work of the penitentiary system.
On November 15, the Chronicle of Turkmenistan reported that the women's colony in Dashoguz was short of food and that heating systems were not working well.
In January, the prosecutor's office of the Dashoguz velayat opened criminal cases against three employees of the women's colony DZ-K / 8 , who tried to rape a prisoner on New Year's Eve.
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan