მოშიმშილე პატიმრის სიცოცხლის უფლებისდაცვის ფარგლები და ხელოვნური (იძულებითი) კვების მიზანშეწონილობა

Abstract

Treatment of people with the status of prisoners is one of the main challenges for the modern world. The artificial (forced) feeding of a prisoner during a hunger strike, an international practice, can be divided into four types of approaches. When force feeding, the European Court of Human Rights focuses on the factor of necessity, purpose and procedural guarantees. If artificial (forced) feeding fails to comply with procedural norms, it can result in severe and long-term mental and physical pain. This work presents the author’s vision of what changes should be made to the relevant normative act of Georgia in order to define exactly what medical aid means and at what stage of a prisoner’s hunger strike can medical aid be applied without the consent of a prisoner. From the analysis of international practice in several Western countries, important principles and standards can be seen by which the necessary measures of artificial (forced) feeding, forced treatment and forced medical examination are implemented. Also, in my view, the norms introduced by one of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights may be well suited to the case where a prisoner is unconscious and has not previously stated his/her position on artificial feeding. From the moment of beginning a hunger strike by a prisoner, a government faces two options: either a prisoner dies of starvation, or a relevant authority intervenes in the starvation in the form of the artificial (forced) feeding of a prisoner. A question is being asked: is there any third option? When a situation reaches a critical level, a state must find a way to de-escalate it.