Abstract

The right to high-quality and reliable healthcare of the prisoners has been a pillar of human dignity and a cornerstone of international human rights law. Nevertheless, although in instruments like the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (colloquially referred to as the Mandela Rules) and others, this right is explicitly recognized, detainees worldwide still find it hard to obtain proper medical and mental health care. We critically discuss in this paper the legal structures that should ensure such care, and evaluate the effectiveness with which the contemporary prison systems adhere to this objective. The debate relies on global agreements, national law and judicial pronouncements which require health services in detention settings to consider physical health as well as mental wellbeing. The results highlight the key barriers, which are mainly overcrowding, poor infrastructure, inaccessibility of specialists, and systematic negligence, that often lead to the infringement of healthcare rights of prisoners. They also indicate that implementation is lopsided due to a lack of uniform standards across jurisdictions as well as due to the fact that monitoring mechanisms are frequently inadequate. When combined, these observations reveal a glaring discrepancy: whereas international law and policy provide a definite benchmark regarding the provision of sufficient prison healthcare, a considerable number of states fail to meet their international obligations. In conclusion, I will say that there should be a better protection of the law and increased supervision to ensure that the right to healthcare of inmates may finally become a reality, and not a dream. Filling this enforcement gap will require far-reaching changes that will better match current prison healthcare delivery with the norms established in international human rights law.

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