2.1.1 People living in residential care settings AGE PLATFORM AGE Platform Europe (AGE) has looked into how the COVID-19 outbreak and measures to respond to it affect the rights of older persons. It asserts that governments must give special attention to balancing the need for safety and protection and the risk of social isolation. It argues that “[w]hereas restrictive measures can be legitimate for reasons of public health and safety, these need to be proportionate and to take into account human rights implications,”272 and notes that alternatives to faceto-face contacts, such as telephone or video calls with relatives, can help to combat isolation, as is done by nursing homes in Belgium.273 For more good practices, see: www.age-platform.eu/coronaviruscovid-19 INFORMATION HUBS ON COVID-19 AND PERSONS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY The Association for the prevention of torture (APT) has launched an information hub on how different actors (for example criminal justice, penitentiary, healthcare and monitoring bodies) are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. Information can be fed in directly by APT partners, in particular National Preventive Mechanisms (national monitoring mechanisms established by the Optional Protocol (of 2002) to the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT)). Further information: Information hub The WHO highlights that older people living in facilities such as nursing homes are at greater risk of COVID-19 due to their age, their often underlying chronic medical conditions and living in close proximity to others.116 The majority of Member States temporarily limited or suspended visits to residential care facilities in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID-19.117 The Slovenian Human Rights Ombuds Institution noted that, while medical experts saw suspending visits to nursing homes as necessary, it is crucial that residents experience such limitations as little as possible. Despite these measures, COVID-19 cases have already been detected in some nursing homes, with devastating consequences. Military teams sent to provide emergency healthcare assistance in Spain found that staff in several privatelyrun centres in Madrid had stopped going to work after residents began to fall ill with COVID-19 reportedly, leaving the sick and dying unattended.118 In one case, the military found 25 older people in a home who had died as a result of COVID-19.119 In a pensioners’ home in Wuerzburg, Germany, nine residents died of COVID-19, 15 were infected and 23 employees had to be quarantined in their homes. The organisation representing the interests of patients and persons in care institutions issued an urgent appeal not to keep infected persons in the institution.120 Similar concerns also affect persons with disabilities living in institutional settings. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities highlighted the high risk of contamination in institutions and called for restrictions on contact with loved ones to be narrowly tailored.121 Unia, the Belgian equality body, noted that parents of children with disabilities living in institutions have to make a choice between bringing their child home or going for long periods without seeing them.122 2.1.2 Prisons The majority of Member States introduced measures in March 2020 temporarily prohibiting or at least restricting visits to prisons. Some still allow lawyers to enter the prison in compliance with social distancing rules. This is the case, for example, in Belgium, Estonia (which also allows consular officers and religious representatives), Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Sweden. Others provide options for telephone or videoconferences, for example in Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal. In the Netherlands, juvenile offenders may still receive visits from their parents or legal guardians.123 Several Member States have also limited the time granted to prisoners outside their cells, suspended prison transfers or banned temporary day release. Some Member States have granted certain prisoners temporary or early release. In the Netherlands, for example, detainees in the latter part of their sentences who spend most of their time outside the prison working are temporarily permitted to sleep at home.124 In contrast in Italy, authorities suspended the semi-freedom regime (where prisoners work outside the prison during the day but return to the prison at night).125 Organisations and detention monitoring bodies in Belgium, France and Germany126 have called for measures such as the release of certain detainees, such as those in pre-trial detention who do not pose a danger to others or those who are old or sick.127 In Italy, some of the new measures introduced resulted in widespread revolts in detention facilities, during which several prisoners and prison officers were injured, and 12 prisoners died.128 After the revolts, the Authority for the Protection of the People who are Detained or Deprived of their Personal 27