The Council of Europe launched a new 600 000 Euro project “Enhancement of Human Rights and Health-Care Support to Penitentiary System” in Georgia.

The Project is designed to assist the national authorities in improvement of the healthcare in prisons and, in particular, the provision of mental healthcare to inmates. This goal will be achieved through assistance aimed at enhancing the access of inmates to quality psychiatric care, treatment, and rehabilitation programmes; and establishing an effective internal control mechanism on the provision of healthcare in prisons.

The partners of the Project are the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, the Public Defender’s Office, the National Preventive Mechanism, as well as relevant CSOs. The Project is part of the Council of Europe 2020-2023 Action Plan for Georgia and will run until the end of November 2021.

On 6 October 2020 the Steering Committee of the Project held its first meeting to discuss the project Work Plan. The Plan was prepared for the duration of the project and is based on the needs identified by project partners and the Council of Europe expert bodies.

The Project builds on the results of EU and Council of Europe joint Programme on “Human Rights and Healthcare in Prisons and Other Closed Institutions in Georgia” (2010-2017), and the Council of Europe project on “Improving Mental Health Care of Persons Detained in Georgia” (2018-2019).