Human Rights Charter of Health without Barriers, the European
Federation for Prison Health 2019
As an organization, Health Without Barriers is committed to contributing all of our available means to ensure
that the health-related human rights of prisoners are duly respected, protected and fulfilled.
Prisons can be detrimental to health and wellbeing. There is a higher prevalence of complex chronic health
conditions, behavioral health risk factors (such as substance use disorders and insufficient social supports)
among prisoners, than in the non-incarcerated population. The nature of incarceration makes prisoners fully
depend on the correctional authorities for timely access to health-care services.
1 Any administrative error,
omission or act of the authorities can have a critical impact on prisoners’ health. Therefore, prisoners are a
vulnerable group whose protected right to health care must fall under the core obligations of States2.