Human rights violations: Ukrainian prisons still follow Soviet-era cell space standards for inmates – ECHR judge says

Ukraine still adheres to the old Soviet standard of 2.5 square meters per inmate in cells, which is deemed unacceptable in Europe and indicates a violation of human rights.

This was reported by Mykola Ihnatovskyi, a judge of the European Court of Human Rights from Ukraine.

“In Ukraine, the Soviet norm of 2.5 square meters per person still applies to pre-trial detention centers at the regulatory level. This creates the illusion of legality for conditions that, from a European standards perspective, are inhumane. It is clear that not only square meters matter: overcrowding in cells causes problems with hygiene, sanitation, ventilation, and many other issues. In this case, the European Court of Human Rights has no grounds to make any decision other than to uphold the complaint. For a long time now, such complaints have been considered by the Court in a simplified format, decisions are accumulating, and the state is forced to spend substantial funds that could be used more beneficially for society,” Ihnatovskyi said.

It is worth noting that Ukraine is among the top five countries in terms of the number of applications against it at the ECHR. There are 8,000 such complaints currently under consideration by the European Court of Human Rights.