Shortie
05-17-2002, 09:46 PM
DEFENDING PRISONERS' HUMAN RIGHTS
Struggling against governmental tendencies toward secrecy and silence on prison abuses, numerous local human rights groups around the world sought to obtain access to prisons, monitor prison conditions, and publicize the abuses they found.. In some countries, government human rights ombudspersons, parliamentary commissions, and other official monitors also helped call attention to abuses. In the United Kingdom, notably, the chief inspector of prisons continued his vigorous investigation and forthright criticism of conditions in the country's penal facilities. In many countries, however, authorities permitted no outside scrutiny of penal conditions.
At the regional level, prison monitoring mechanisms were active. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) continued its important work, inspecting penal institutions in Georgia, Greece, Malta, Moldova, the Russian Federation (Chechen Republic), Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and publishing reports on penal conditions in Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Portugal, and Turkey.
In Africa, the special rapporteur on prisons and conditions of detention, an adjunct to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, visited prisons in Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique. The General Assembly of the Organization of American States adopted a resolution endorsing efforts to draft an Inter-American Declaration on Persons Deprived of Liberty.
UNITED NATIONS MONITORING EFFORTS
The vast scale and chronic nature of human rights violations in the world's prisons have long been of concern to the United Nations, as demonstrated by the 1955 promulgation of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Indeed, the international community's failure to adopt these standards in practice, even while it has embraced them in theory, has inspired the United Nations' most recent prisons effort.
For nearly a decade, a U.N. working group has been hammering out a draft treaty that would establish a U.N. subcommittee authorized to make regular and ad hoc visits to places of detention in states party to the treaty, including prisons, jails, and police lockups. As described in the draft treaty--conceived as an optional protocol to the Convention against Torture--the primary goal of the subcommittee would be to prevent torture and other ill-treatment. Based on the information obtained during its periodic and ad hoc visits, the subcommittee would make detailed recommendations to state authorities regarding necessary improvements to their detention facilities.
The working group's most recent session, in October 2000, ended without any progress being made toward the completion of a draft treaty. The session revealed the wide gap that remains between countries on such fundamental issues as which places should be subject to visits, whether prior consent must be obtained, whether reservations to the optional protocol should be allowed, and the impact of national legislation on the nature and scope of visits.
Other U.N. bodies pressed countries to improve their prison conditions. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, whose mandate was renewed for another three years by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, reported findings of widespread torture in Brazil and Azerbaijan, based on his visits to those countries in 2000.
Struggling against governmental tendencies toward secrecy and silence on prison abuses, numerous local human rights groups around the world sought to obtain access to prisons, monitor prison conditions, and publicize the abuses they found.. In some countries, government human rights ombudspersons, parliamentary commissions, and other official monitors also helped call attention to abuses. In the United Kingdom, notably, the chief inspector of prisons continued his vigorous investigation and forthright criticism of conditions in the country's penal facilities. In many countries, however, authorities permitted no outside scrutiny of penal conditions.
At the regional level, prison monitoring mechanisms were active. The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) continued its important work, inspecting penal institutions in Georgia, Greece, Malta, Moldova, the Russian Federation (Chechen Republic), Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom and publishing reports on penal conditions in Austria, Croatia, France, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Portugal, and Turkey.
In Africa, the special rapporteur on prisons and conditions of detention, an adjunct to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, visited prisons in Malawi, Namibia and Mozambique. The General Assembly of the Organization of American States adopted a resolution endorsing efforts to draft an Inter-American Declaration on Persons Deprived of Liberty.
UNITED NATIONS MONITORING EFFORTS
The vast scale and chronic nature of human rights violations in the world's prisons have long been of concern to the United Nations, as demonstrated by the 1955 promulgation of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Indeed, the international community's failure to adopt these standards in practice, even while it has embraced them in theory, has inspired the United Nations' most recent prisons effort.
For nearly a decade, a U.N. working group has been hammering out a draft treaty that would establish a U.N. subcommittee authorized to make regular and ad hoc visits to places of detention in states party to the treaty, including prisons, jails, and police lockups. As described in the draft treaty--conceived as an optional protocol to the Convention against Torture--the primary goal of the subcommittee would be to prevent torture and other ill-treatment. Based on the information obtained during its periodic and ad hoc visits, the subcommittee would make detailed recommendations to state authorities regarding necessary improvements to their detention facilities.
The working group's most recent session, in October 2000, ended without any progress being made toward the completion of a draft treaty. The session revealed the wide gap that remains between countries on such fundamental issues as which places should be subject to visits, whether prior consent must be obtained, whether reservations to the optional protocol should be allowed, and the impact of national legislation on the nature and scope of visits.
Other U.N. bodies pressed countries to improve their prison conditions. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on torture, whose mandate was renewed for another three years by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, reported findings of widespread torture in Brazil and Azerbaijan, based on his visits to those countries in 2000.