COUNCIL OF EUROPE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS SECRETARIAT / SECRÉTARIAT COMITÉ DES MINISTRES SECRETARIAT OF THE COMMITTEE OF MINISTERS CONSEIL DE l'.EUROPE SECRÉTARIAT DU COMITÉ DES MINISTRES Contact: John Darcy Tel: 03 88 41 31 56 Date: 31/01/2020 DH-DD(2020)94 Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Meeting: 1369th meeting (March 2020) (DH) Communication from the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and reply from the authorities (02/01/2020) in the KATS AND OTHERS group of cases v. Ukraine (Application No. 29971/04) Information made available under Rules 9.2 and 9.6 of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments and of the terms of friendly settlements. * * * * * * * * * * * Document distribué sous la seule responsabilité de son auteur, sans préjuger de la position juridique ou politique du Comité des Ministres. Réunion : 1369e réunion (mars 2020) (DH) Communication de « Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union » et réponse des autorités (02/01/2020) relative au groupe d’affaires KATS ET AUTRES c. Ukraine (requête n° 29971/04) [anglais uniquement] Informations mises à disposition en vertu des Règles 9.2 et 9.6 des Règles du Comité des Ministres pour la surveillance de l’exécution des arrêts et des termes des règlements amiables. DH-DD(2020)94: Rules 9.2 + 9.6 NGO & reply from Ukraine in Kats and Others. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. Ukrainian Association of public human rights organizations UKRAINIAN 3/34 Frolivska str., Kyiv, Ukraine, 04070 HELSINKI Phone/fax: +380 44 485 17 92, [email protected], www.helsinki.org.ua HUMAN RIGHTS For correspondence: 04071, Kyiv, PO box 100 UNION 19 December 2019 Council of Europe DGI - Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law Department for the Execution of Judgments of the ECHR F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex France Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union’s Submission to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe as to the authorities’ failure to protect the right to life of the applicants remanded in pre-trial detention due to inadequate medical care (the execution of judgments on Kats and Others v. Ukraine group) This briefing is submitted in accordance with Rule 9(2) of the Rules of the Committee of Ministers for the supervision of the execution of judgments. Introduction 1.The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) is the largest All- Ukrainian association of human rights organisations. Among the UHHRU efforts to protect human rights are ongoing monitoring of human rights situation in Ukraine and informing the public about facts of their violation, provision of legal assistance to victims of human rights violations, including supporting strategically important cases, protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in courts, the authorities and bodies of local self-government, human rights research and analysis, including regular monitoring of draft laws and legal acts, as well as preparing and advocating own legislative initiatives, conducting awareness- raising campaigns, educational seminars, trainings on human rights. Case summary 2. The cases of Kats and Others group concern the authorities’ failure to protect the right to life of the applicants/applicants’ relatives remanded in pre-trial detention (due to inadequate medical care in the cases of Kats and others, Salakhov and Islyamova, where victims were HIV-positive). Likewise, the same issues raised in the following cases of Karpylenko, Logvinenko, Lunev, Savinov, Kiyashko and Sergey Antonov v. Ukraine. 3. In addition, in the case of Kats and Others, the Court found a violation of Article 5 of the Convention of human rights and fundamental freedoms on account of the applicants’ relative’s unlawful detention. 4. The issue of inadequate medical assistance for people with HIV in Ukrainian detention facilities has already been addressed by the Court in a number of cases. On that matter the Court held the following position: DH-DD(2020)94: Rules 9.2 + 9.6 NGO & reply from Ukraine in Kats and Others. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. - In particular, in Kats and Others “despite the authorities’ knowledge that the applicant was HIV-positive, there was no relevant treatment at all, and this led to the person’s death”1. - In Salakhov and Islyamova “the applicant’s treatment for an HIV-related infection was sporadic and irregular”2. - In the case of Kiyashko “no adequate medical treatment had been provided to [the applicant], and that had resulted in the significant deterioration of his health”3. Statistics and data 5. Ukraine is one of the first countries in the European region by the number of HIV-positive people. According to estimates, at the beginning of 2018, there were 244,000 oficially reported HIV-positive people in the country. Mostly the infected with HIV citizens of Ukraine are reported among the ages of 15 and 49. According to the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization, the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which is territorially located in Ukraine, is the one where the number of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths continues to increase. The HIV disease in Ukraine at the present stage is characterized by the predominant involvement of persons in the age of employment with an increase in the proportion of the age group over 50 years among new cases. HIV infection is predominantly sexually transmitted, but still remains concentrated in HIV- infected populations. In the course of 2018, 50 cases of HIV infection were reported daily in Ukraine, 24 reported cases of AIDS and nine cases of deaths caused by AIDS. According to official statistics for the period 1987 - May 2019, 341 084 cases of HIV infection are officially registered in the country, including 114 487 cases of AIDS and 49 751 cases of deaths caused by AIDS. As of April 1, 2019, there were 142,076 HIV-positive citizens in health care facilities (an indicator of 336.5 per 100,000 population), including 46,987 patients diagnosed with AIDS (111.3). The highest rates of HIV infection were registered in Odesa (898.3 per 100,000 population), Dnipropetrovsk (792.6), Mykolaiv (743.5) oblasts, Kyiv (479.0), Kyiv region (447.9), Kherson (420.1) and Chernihiv (420.4) regions4. 6. The incidence of HIV infection in Ukraine increased until 2013, when the highest number of HIV-positive persons was registered in the country (21,631). A further significant reduction in the incidence of HIV infection in 2014 and 2015 is primarily due to the lack of statistics from the Crimea and part of the territory of the anti-terrorist operation. In the following years, the incidence of HIV infection 1 Sergey Antonov v. Ukraine, no. 40512/13, § 81, 22 October 2015; 2 Sergey Antonov v. Ukraine, no. 40512/13, § 81, 22 October 2015; 3 Kiyashko v. Ukraine, no. 37240/07, § 93, 23 February 2017; 4 HIV/AIDS Statistics of "Public Health Center by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine", available at: https://www.phc.org.ua/kontrol-zakhvoryuvan/vilsnid/statistika-z-vilsnidu; 2 DH-DD(2020)94: Rules 9.2 + 9.6 NGO & reply from Ukraine in Kats and Others. Document distributed under the sole responsibility of its author, without prejudice to the legal or political position of the Committee of Ministers. in the country increased (from 15,869 cases in 2015 to 18,194 in 2017), the incidence rate in 2017 was 42.8 per 100,000 population, which is 7% more than in 2016. 7. According to the UNAIDS 2016-2021 Strategy “to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030”5, action is needed to end the HIV infectioning. It is a call to reach the 90–90–90 treatment targets, to close the testing gap and to protect the health of the 22 million people living with HIV who are still not accessing treatment. The 90–90–90 targets envision that, by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV- positive status will be accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment will have suppressed viral loads. Thus, in Ukraine by 2020 an additional 97,000 HIV-people should be covered by treatment, and 87,000 of them should have undetectable levels of the virus in their blood. 8. In 2018 in Ukraine6: 47% of people living with HIV knew their status. 35% of people living with HIV were on treatment. 32% of people living with HIV were virally suppressed. 9. Prisoners are among the most vulnerable to socially dangerous infectious diseases. The incidence of HIV among prisoners is 20 times higher than among the civilian population, and the incidence of AIDS among convicts is 4 times more frequent. 10. There is also a high prevalence of HIV co-infections in Ukrainian prisons. Incarceration contributes to tuberculosis (TB) transmission and although Ukraine’s prison population consists of 0,5% of the adult population, 6,2% of all new TB cases across the country are a direct result of incarceration. 11. This association is even more stark for people who inject drugs that are also HIV positive, with incarceration linked to 75% of TB infections for this population7. Hepatitis C prevalence in prisons is also substantially high estimated at 60.2%8. 12. By the officials’ data9, currently, more than 57,000 people are in detention centers and prisons in Ukraine.