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Georgian Young Lawyers Association against Strip Search

September 4, 2015
 
Jimsher Rekhviashvili, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) addressed the constitutional court of Georgia and requested revocation of #97 decree of Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance of Georgia adopted on May 30, 2011, according to which, every defendant and convict is subject to the procedure of full examination when entering or leaving a penitentiary facility. The full examination procedure includes complete denudation and in frequent cases, making prisoners to do squats. According to the statement of GYLA, this decree contradicts the Constitution of Georgia which prohibits treatment which violates the dignity and honor of a person.

Human Rights Center has been carrying out monitoring in the female facility since February of 2015. The co-director of the organization, Nino Tsagareishvili states that the female prisoners are especially discontent about the degrading procedures of full examination.

“The majority of the prisoners interviewed by us confirm the practice of full examination in the female facility which includes full denudation and sometimes even making them to do squats while being strip searched. The prison director has also publicly confirmed existence of this practice inside the female facility and stated that it is envisioned by N97 decree of the Minister,” – Nino Tsagareishvili stated to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

This negative search practice has also caught the attention of The Office of Public Defender of Georgia. According to the 2014 Report on Situation of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia, “The full examination procedure which includes full denudation of female prisoners represents alarming problem in N5 facility. In some cases the prisoners are asked to squat during the procedure that inflicts moral damage on them. It should be noted that this kind of inspection takes place in each case when the prisoner leaves or enters the facility. There are cases when the prisoners refuse to receive medical service outside the facility or leave to attend the trial due to fearing this procedure”.

The decision of GYLA to file a complaint to Constitutional Court relies on this part of the Ombudsman’s report. According to the representative of organization, George Gotsiridze, denuding prisoner for the aims of the strip search relies on 2011 and 2013 decrees of Minister of Corrections and Legal Assistance. 

“Both of these decrees envisage possibility of complete denudation of prisoner when entering and leaving the facility. We think that such routine practice of full denudation contradicts the Georgian Constitution and violates the person’s honor and dignity. It is possible to use other more civilized methods to reach the same goals that the full denudation envisions (for instance, discovering prohibited weapon, drugs and etc)” – George Gotsiridze stated to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

According to Giorgi Gotsiridze, more civilized method would be electro scanner which can discover prohibited items without fully denuding the prisoner. According to George Gotsiridze, the alternative means of inspection are required by the standards of European Court of Human Rights and UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners (the so-called “Bangkok Rules”) which states that “effective measures shall be taken to ensure that women prisoners’ dignity and respect are protected during personal searches, which shall only be carried out by women staff who have been properly trained in appropriate searching methods and in accordance with established procedures. Alternative screening methods, such as scans, shall be developed to replace strip searches and invasive body searches, in order to avoid the harmful psychological and possible physical impact of invasive body searches”.

GYLA also refers to the part II of article 17 of Constitution of Georgia which prohibits torture, inhuman or degrading treatment. However, the Ministry of Corrections and Legal Assistance states that the N97 decree does not contradict the Constitution. The head of the Legal Department of the Ministry, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze states that the aim of full examination is not just discovering the prohibited items.

“The aim of the full examination is to discover the injuries as well as prevent bringing of prohibited items to the facility. The international standards are in full compliance with our legislation in this regard: the prisoner must be inspected by the person of the same gender. The inspection might be carried out in the presence of the medical personnel. It should not diminish the honor and dignity of a person. In our case, we allocate a separate room for this procedure which is equipped relevantly. This room does not have a window and there is no video monitoring. The search is performed by the person of the same gender and does not involve touching. Therefore it does not violate the dignity of a prisoner” – Aleksandre Darakhvelidze stated to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

According to Aleksandre Darakhvelidze, even if the prisons are equipped with the special scanners which they already plan to do stage by stage, the injuries will not be effectively described. He states that this procedure is required by the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment as well as Istanbul Protocol. As for the squats, Aleksandre Darakhvelidze states that the decree does not envision such procedure.

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