Harm Reduction International, Promo-LEX and EPLN submitted a joint communication in response to the call for inputs launched by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions on “practices for the investigation, documentation and prevention of deaths in custody in the criminal justice context”.
The joint communication focuses on deaths in detention of pretrial and sentenced prisoners, with an emphasis on persons detained for drug-related offences and/or with a history of drug use, as well as on deaths classified as “drug-related”’”.
Particular attention is paid to policies and practices that are likely to have a significant impact on preventing these deaths.
The communication also underlines widely observed shortcomings in processes and measures to prevent deaths in detention, in particular suicide prevention, and the transfer of seriously ill patients.