PRISONERS’ HEALTH-RELATED RIGHTS

Abstract

The question of fundamental rights that shall be recognized
and guaranteed for inmates raises the substantial issue of
health care in prison. Incarceration has harmful impacts
on both physical and mental state health of prisoners and
the problem of prison overcrowding further exacerbates the
situation. Such reasons have led public authorities to put
greater focus on health care in prisons.
In several countries, the development in this direction
supports the implementation of patient’s rights in favour
of inmates in prison. Is it worth asserting the emergence
of a legal status in favour of the sick inmates while the
gap of effective enjoyment and exercise of inmates’ rights
is still prevailing?
In Tunisia, the status of the ill inmate through the prism of
prison law has not been carefully analyzed. Indeed, prison
is an institution that challenges lawyers. An “enclosed
confined space cut off from society”, prison does not seem to
be in line with the established standards. In the Tunisian
context, it will be noteworthy to check if all legal provisions
respect the relevant international standards applicable
in this regard. It will be necessary to question the legal
and practical limits of the exercise of these rights as well
as its conciliation with the constraints facing the prison’s
administration. This paper will tackle the issues related
to inmates’ rights to accessing medical care, the standards
governing the quality of medical care, the organization of
health care in prison, the role of physicians and the relevant
principles of medical Ethics.
Tunisia’s challenge will henceforth be to lift prison from
the situation of legal exception in contradiction with the
requirements of a democratic society and hence to safeguard
the inmate’s legal and human rights when sick.