The article is devoted to the issue of observing human rights during forcefeeding of convicts and persons in custody. The legal basis for resolving the conflict, which arises between the natural right of a person to personal integrity and the positive duty of the state to preserve the life of a person under its control, is analyzed.

The purposes of this article is to highlight the key innovations of domestic legislation regarding the essence of force-feeding as a last resort to preserve the life of a prisoner, the grounds and procedure for adoption a judgment on force-feeding, as well as to clarify the compliance of these innovations with European standards in the field of human rights protection.

Force-feeding, as a mean of influencing prisoners is not considered inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. At the same time, there must be objective medical reasons for such coercion. the nature and procedure of force-feeding must be as humane as possible and accompanied by the minimum necessary level of physical coercion.

Clear provisions regarding the record of the fact of the prisoner’s refusal to accept food by the staff of penitentiary institutions have been established in the national legislation. The presence of an obvious threat to the life of such a person must be confirmed by medical documents. Force-feeding can be applied only on the basis of a judgment, adopted at the request of the prosecutor. To evaluate the state of prisoner’s or convict’s health, the court has the right to summon another doctor. The judgment on force-feeding has a limited period of validity (30 days) and can be challenged in the appeal, which stops its entry into force, but does not stop its execution.

It was concluded that Ukraine has introduced a proper legal mechanism for the use of force-feeding of convicts and persons in custody, which meets European standards in the field of human rights. The court, which will consider the relevant petition of the prosecutor, is obliged to establish clear medical grounds for the use of force-feeding, and the trial procedure sustains necessary guarantees of human rights, the observance of which makes it possible to make a legal, substantiated and motivated judgment.

The Government is entrusted to develop and approve the procedure for forced feeding, as well as the conditions of detention of convicts and persons taken into custody, who refuse to take food. In the context of the observance of human rights, special attention needs to be paid to the regulation of limits and methods of use of physical coercion (force) by authorized subjects during force-feeding.

Bibliography

Authored books

1. Lekhtmets A, Pont Y, ‘Okhorona zdorov’ia ta medychna etyka v penitentsiarnykh ustanovakh’ v Posibnyk dlia medychnoho personalu penitentsiarnykh ustanov ta inshoho personalu, vidpovidalnoho za stan zdorov’ia zasudzhenykh ta uv’iaznenykh (Rada Yevropy 2016) (in Ukrainian).