As interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights, the prohibition of discrimination has special importance when the different treatment is related to the imprisoned
person; The State in this case has a narrow margin of appreciation and the principle of
proportionality not only requires that the applied measure should be proportionate to
the pursued aim, but also obliges the state to demonstrate that the means were necessary in concrete cases.236 When the reason of differentiation is a more intimate sphere,
for the justification of a differentiated treatment should be the especially weighty arguments.237 Besides, the Court noted that if the prisoner should be isolated from the
other prisoners, he/she should be placed in a place that fits his/her medical needs and
well-being.238 The States, according to Articles 14 and 3 of the Convention have a responsibility to investigate whether the measures taken are based on the discriminatory
treatment that caused the complete isolation of the prisoner from the prison life.239
On 6-9 November 2006, during the meeting held in Indonesia, the expert group developed the “Jakarta Principles” which constitute the recommendatory rules of international human rights law related to the sexual orientation and gender identity.240 Despite
the fact that these rules are not of mandatory nature, their implementation in practice
has a special importance in terms of elimination of discrimination and protection of
fundamental human rights. Rule N9 of the principles concerns the treatment of LGBT
prisoners. According to the above rule, the State is obliged to protect a detained individual from marginalization and all forms of violence due to his/her sexual orientation.
In the framework of the monitoring the methodology and approach of the personnel of
the penitentiary establishments had been studied in detail in relation to the prisoners
enlisted in the prison maintenance service, responsible for cleaning. Due to the security
reasons, above individuals are separated and placed in the so called maintenance section.
The criminal sub-culture and informal rules have been applied in the penitentiary establishment for decades. The prison maintenance service sections of the establishments241
are divided into two parts. One part is responsible for distributing food and providing
the prisoners with the products from the establishment’s shop. The other part is responsible for cleaning. They are placed separately. The individuals involved in the maintenance service, responsible for cleaning are cleaning the yards, corridors, sanitary knots
and showers. They are paid 200 GEL for the above work. 242
236 European Court of Human Rights, 27 May 2013, X v. Turkey, para 57.
237 Ibid, para 50; European Court of Human Rights, 21 October 2010, Alekseyev v. Russia, para 108;
European Court of Human Rights, 2 March 2010, Kozak v. Poland, para 83.
238 European Court of Human Rights, 9 October 2015, Martzaklis and others v. Greece, para 71.
239 European Court of Human Rights, 27 May 2013, X v. Turkey, para 55.
240 Available at: http://www.yogyakartaprinciples.org/principles_en.htm>
241 Except the facilities N5, N11, N16 and N18.
242 The income tax – 20% is paid from the above amount.
146
NATIONAL PREVENTIVE MECHANISM (NPM), 2015
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