5. PROJECT OUTCOMES 5.1. FINDINGS FROM TDFs MONITORING REGARDING THE RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS According to different international human rights agencies, treating all persons deprived of their liberty with humanity and with respect for their dignity is a fundamental and universally applicable rule. In particular, the UN Human Rights Committee has resolved that the exercise of the right to humane treatment, “as a minimum, cannot be dependent on the material resources available in the State party”10, and emphasized the importance of complying with provisions of so-called international “soft law” documents adopted by the UN that set out standards for humane treatment of prisoners such as: – Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners11; – Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment; – Regulations for Law Enforcement Officials; – Principles of medical ethics related to the role of medical workers, doctors in particular, in protecting prisoners or detainees from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Any restrictions of detainees’ rights must be lawful and necessary, i.e., only those rights are allowed to be restricted that a detainee may use to escape, commit new crimes, or create obstacles for the ascertainment of the truth. In this context, it may be necessary to restrict the suspect’s freedom of movement and control his/her communications with the outside world or other detainees. No restriction may be imposed on the rest of the rights and liberties (except for grounds common for all citizens), and assuring of those rests with the state. The monitoring findings provided herein demonstrate to what extent the standards for ensuring the rights of communicating with the outside world, the right to decent detention conditions and humane treatment, the right to freedom from torture, and the right to defense are adhered to. Analysis findings related to the issues of legality of detention and effectiveness of control and oversight by relevant bodies, and working environment for TDF personnel are provided in separate sections. Access for Observers to TDFs In the course of the monitoring, there were four cases in which the observers including members of the Public Supervisory Board under the KR Interior Ministry and members of the KR Ombudsman’s Office were denied access to TDFs for various reasons. For instance, on July 29, 2011, Deputy Head of Balykchy IAB, citing the lack of coordination with the management of the Issyk-Kul Oblast IAD, denied access to the Balykchy IAB TDF, even though the observers had an official letter from the Authorized Representative of the Ombudsman for Issyk-Kul Oblast containing a request for assistance in conducting joint monitoring as per the Memorandum of Cooperation. Furthermore, access was denied in spite of the fact that the monitoring team had an Ombudsman’s Office representative as its member. On August 10, 2011, two monitoring team members, a member of the Public Supervisory Board under the KR Interior Ministry and an attorney of a detainee N., intended to visit a Moscow District IAB TDF where during their first visit they had detected this detainee with signs of torture on his body. However, head of the TDF and the district IAB officer-on-duty denied access to the monitoring team members. 10 Corridor of TDF. UN Human Rights Committee. General Comment No. 21. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners are applicable to all categories of persons deprived of their liberty, including prisoners, persons under investigation, and persons arrested or imprisoned without charge. See Preliminary Observations and Part II (E) of the Rules. 11 19