NGO calls for health reform in prisons

An international NGO in Tajikistan has called on the ex-Soviet state to speed up reform of the penal system while taking steps to reduce infectious disease rates in prison. "Usually NGOs wait a very long time for the authorities allow us to carry out work on things like HIV/AIDS prevention among prisoners. It is necessary for Tajikistan to speed up work in this area and to protect human rights in places of imprisonment", Shoira Yusupova, programme officer of the British NGO Christian Aid/Act Central Asia, said on Friday. Tajik prisons, home to 13,000 inmates according to official figures, saw almost 90 deaths due to infectious diseases in 2005, the deputy of the correction department in the Ministry of Justice, Bakhrom Abdoulkhakov, said in January this year. "87 people have died in institutions of confinement in 2005 due to infectious diseases, in particular tuberculosis," he added. More than 3,700 tuberculosis cases were diagnosed in Tajikistan between January and November 2005 - a leap of 33 percent over the same period the previous year, the health ministry said. Although prisoners in Tajikistan have just US $0.37 spent on them a day, Abdoulkhakov pointed out that this figure represented more than a hundred percent increase over the amount the state allocated two years ago. The government admits there is a need for penal reform. "We have huge challenges in terms of the maintenance of prisoners. Security is most important, but we do not overlook the fact that every prisoner has the right to life, dignity and honour," Khalifabobo Khamidov, Minister of Justice of Tajikistan, said on 18 January. There are several humanitarian organisations working in Tajikistan on prisoners' rights and penal reform, in particular the Christian Church of Baptists and the Swiss Cooperation Office.