On the occasion of the Human Rights Day (10 December), Director of the Penal Sanctions Enforcement Administration Dejan Carević stated that the Administration was committed to respecting the rights of persons deprived of liberty and a full application of relevant international conventions and national laws.
Mr Carević added that the Administration was taking effective measures for prevention of torture in prison correctional institutions (PCIs), such as exercising control over the exercise and the protection of the rights of convicted persons and detainees in accordance with the law, and that it was implementing the Council of Europe recommendations on COVID-19 pandemic prevention. ‘Since March, the Administration has been vigorously implementing preventive measures to safeguard the health of convicted persons. Caring about the humane aspect of the execution of prison sentences, the Administration has allowed convicted persons and detainees family visitations under strict rules on COVID-19 prevention, and contact with family members via Skype and Viber’, he stated.
On the occasion of the Human Rights Day, the PCI in Sremska Mitrovica made a donation to the Children’s Shelter in Belgrade in the form of nearly 4,000 ready-to-eat meal rations (the so-called ‘dry meals’) and 500 face masks which the convicted persons in that PCI had been making since the start of the pandemic. PCI Warden Aleksandar Alimpić emphasised that it was the convicted persons’ own idea to help the Children’s Shelter in this way. ‘This initiative and action become even more important as we mark Human Rights Day today. With their humanity, the convicted persons have brought the public’s attention to the vulnerable position in which the youngest members of our population find themselves, facing numerous obstacles every day’, he emphasised.
Mr Alimpić added that convicted persons serving sentences in the country’s largest PCIs – located in Sremska Mitrovica, Niš, Požarevac (Zabela), Pančevo and Novi Sad – had been making similar donations since March, foregoing 4,700 dry meals for the most vulnerable groups of the population. He also noted the importance of the personal contributions made and the high degree of solidarity among convicted persons in several PCIs who, from the very start of the pandemic, began making masks, suits, single use socks, and caps, with the PCI in Sremska Mitrovica alone having produced nearly half a million [items] of protective gear.