Human rights activists appealed to the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Elvira Surabaldieva with a demand to stop compulsory vaccination of prisoners and patients of neuropsychiatric centers against COVID-19. Bir Duino Kyrgyzstan human rights movement reports.
According to an expert in evidence-based medicine Bermet Baryktabasova, the vaccine must undergo appropriate laboratory tests.
It is necessary to ensure interaction between medical units in closed institutions, territorial and tertiary medical organizations, as well as the Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund, which will help prisoners to receive better quality care.
Human rights activists once again called on the government to consider the possibility of applying the Nelson Mandela principle, according to which the elderly, women, children and prisoners with special needs should be released. They reminded that this practice was used all over the world and was supported by the UN, as it minimizes the scale of infection and the consequences of the pandemic in closed institutions, and also significantly reduces the burden on medical services and the country’s budget.
Elvira Surabaldieva promised to respond.
At a press conference on November 12, the acting President Sadyr Japarov said that the issue of pardoning 2,000 convicts was being considered. According to him, first of all, women with small children will be pardoned.
