A three-day training on ‘International and national standards in the area of mental health, with a special focus on closed institutions’ kicked off in Dushanbe on November 27.

Organized by the Coalition of Civil Society Against Torture and Impunity in Tajikistan (Coalition), the training is being held within the framework of the European Union project, ‘Action for Freedom from Torture in Tajikistan’.

According to the Delegation of European Union to Tajikistan, the purpose of the training is in improving the capacity of the members of the Monitoring Group for Places of Deprivation and Limitation of Liberty affiliated with the Ombudsman for Human Rights in Tajikistan with regard to the rights of persons held in psychiatric institutions.

The meeting participants include fifteen members of the Monitoring Group.

The training is being facilitated by international experts from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw: Lenur Kerymov and Agnieszka Kłosowska.

The Monitoring Group was established by the Order of the Ombudsman for Human Rights in the Republic of Tajikistan in December 2013 and operates on the basis of the relevant regulation.  The Monitoring Group includes representatives of the Ombudsman for Human Rights and Civil Society – members of the Coalition and the ‘Avesta’ NGO.

The Monitoring Group began its visits to places of deprivation and limitation of liberty in February 2014.  Between February 2014 and November 2017, the group visited more than 40 closed and semi-closed institutions, including temporary detention facilities, remand prisons, correctional and social institutions, institutions for juvenile offenders, psychiatric institutions and substance abuse centers.