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Women in detention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2010

Julie Ashdown  and
Mel James
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Abstract

Prison systems are rarely gender sensitive, and are even less so in conflict situations. When women are detained, it is crucial that international standards, applied with sensitivity to women's particular needs, are brought to bear. This article gives an overview of the relevant international law, as well as the gender-specific considerations that need to be taken into account when implementing it.

Type
Women
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 92 , Issue 877: Women , March 2010 , pp. 123 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © International Committee of the Red Cross 2010

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References

1 Walmsley, Roy, World Female Imprisonment List, International Centre for Prison Studies, Kings College London, 2006, p. 1Google Scholar.

2 ICRC, Women and War, Geneva, 2008, p. 22, available at http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/p0944 (last visited 11 March 2010).

3 Penal Reform International, Penal Reform Briefing No. 3: Women in Prison – Incarcerated in a Man's World, London, 2008, p. 2.

4 Tomris Atabay, Handbook for Prison Managers and Policymakers on Women and Imprisonment, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2008, p. 90, available at http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/women-and-imprisonment.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

5 Womankind Worldwide, Taking Stock Update: Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On, London, 2008, p. 35, available at http://www.womankind.org.uk/takingstockdownloads.html (last visited 1 April 2010).

6 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), ‘Dignity and Justice for Detainees Week: information note no. 5’, Geneva, 2008, p. 2, available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/60UDHR/detention_infonote_5.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

7 Charlotte Lindsey, Women Facing War, ICRC, Geneva, 2001, p. 163, available at http://www.icrc.org/Web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/p0798 (last visited 1 April 2010).

8 Ibid.

9 Ibid.

10 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Vernor Muñoz, The Right to Education of Persons in Detention, A/HRC/11/8, 2 April 2009, para. 12, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/11session/A.HRC.11.8_en.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

11 OHCHR, Rule of Law Tools for Post-Conflict States: Mapping the Justice Sector, United Nations, Geneva, 2006, available at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/RuleoflawMappingen.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

12 OHCHR, above note 6, p. 3.

13 Ibid., p. 2.

14 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 15 September 1995, paras. 121, 124(g), and 232(i), available at http://www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/pdf/BEIJIN_E.PDF (last visited 1 April 2010).

15 Ibid., para. 215.

16 Respectively, ICTY Statute, Art. 5(g), and ICTR Statute, Art. 3(g).

17 ICTR, The Prosecutor v. Jean-Paul Akayesu, Case No. ICTR-96-4-1, Judgment, 2 September 1998.

18 ICTY, The Prosecutor v. Dragoljub Kunarac et al., Case No. IT-96-23-T, Judgment, 22 September 2001. Some of the women in this case were held in houses that served as brothels for soldiers and were subjected to almost constant rape and sexual assaults and other abuses. See also Human Rights Watch, A Dark and Closed Place: Past and Present Human Rights Abuses in Foca, 1998, and Bosnia: Landmark Verdicts for Rape, Torture and Sexual Enslavement, 2001.

19 See International Criminal Court, Rome Statute, Art. 3(g) and 4(e).

20 For example, ibid., Art. 36(8) requires a ‘fair representation of female and male judges’ and other personnel who possess ‘legal expertise on specific issues, including, but not limited to, violence against women and children’.

21 See GC I, Art. 12; GC II, Art. 12; GC III, Art. 14, 25, 88, 97, and 108; GC IV, Art. 14, 16, 21–27, 38, 50, 76, 85, 89, 91, 97, 124, 127, and 132; AP I, Art. 70 and 75–76; AP II, Art. 5(2) and 6(4).

22 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 2200 A (XXI), 16 December 1966.

23 UNGA Resolution 34/180, UN Doc. A/RES/34/180, 18 December 1979.

24 UNGA Resolution 39/46, UN Doc. A/RES/39/46, 10 December 1984.

25 Many of the provisions of international human rights law are also found in the three regional systems of human rights protection in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. Respectively, these are based on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (1981), the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights (1969), and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950).

26 UN Human Rights Committee, ‘General comment no. 21’, 1992, para. 3, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/3327552b9511fb98c12563ed004cbe59?Opendocument (last visited 1 April 2010).

27 Article 1 of the Convention defines torture as ‘any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain and suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity’.

28 Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Novak, UN Doc. A/HRC/7/3, 15 January 2008, para. 28, available at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/101/61/PDF/G0810161.pdf?OpenElement (last visited 1 April 2010).

29 Ibid., para. 71.

30 See Rodley, Nigel S., The Treatment of Prisoners under International Law, Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 280–281.Google Scholar

31 For a detailed list and texts, see http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ (last visited 11 March 2010).

32 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, approved by the United Nations Economic and Social Council Resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977 (‘Standard Minimum Rules’), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/treatmentprisoners.htm (last visited 1 April 2010).

33 See also Penal Reform International, Making Standards Work: An International Handbook on Good Prison Practice, 2nd edn, London, 2001, p. 7.

34 Standard Minimum Rules, Art. 2.

35 Ibid., Art. 6(1).

36 Ibid., Art. 23.

37 Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (‘Body of Principles’), UNGA Resolution 43/173, UN Doc. A/RES/43/173, 9 December 1988, available at http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/43/a43r173.htm (last visited 1 April 2010).

38 ibid., Principle 5.

39 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules), United Nations General Assembly Resolution 45/110, UN Doc. A/RES/45/110, 14 December 1990, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/tokyorules.htm (last visited 1 April 2010).

40 See Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, ‘Draft United Nations rules for the treatment of women prisoners and non-custodial measures for women offenders’, UN Doc. E/CN.15/2009/CRP.8, 9 April 2009, available at http://www.unrol.org/doc.aspx?d=2914 (last visited 1 April 2010).

41 An expert group met to consider the draft Rules in February 2009 and will report to the Twelfth UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, to be held in Brazil in April 2010.

42 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNGA Resolution 48/104, UN Doc. A/RES/48/104, 20 December 1993, available at http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/a.res.48.104.en (last visited 1 April 2010).

43 ibid., Art. 4.

44 For more information about girls in conflict with the law, see Human Rights Watch, ‘Violence against girls in conflict with the law’, 2003, available at http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2007/02/20/global15345.htm (last visited 15 January 2010).

45 Standard Minimum Rules, Art. 8.

46 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 165.

47 Tomris Atabay, Afghanistan: Female Prisoners and their Social Reintegration, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, March 2007, p. 74, available at http://www.unodc.org/pdf/criminal_justice/Afghan_women_prison_web.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

48 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 164.

49 Standard Minimum Rules, Art. 84(6).

50 Ibid., Art. 93; Body of Principles, Principle 18; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Art. 14(3)(b), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm (last visited 1 April 2010).

51 Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/7, 12 December 2005, para. 66, available at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/166/48/PDF/G0516648.pdf?OpenElement (last visited 1 April 2010).

52 For further information, see The PLC Manual: A Manual for Paralegals Conducting Paralegal Advisory Clinics (PLCs) in Prison, 2nd edn, Nanzikambe, Penal Reform International, and the Paralegal Advisory Service, Lilongwe, 2007, available at http://www.penalreform.org/publications/plc-manual-manual-paralegals-conducting-paralegal-aid-clinics-prison-0 (last visited 1 April 2010).

53 See for example the Report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston: Addendum, Mission to Nigeria, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/53/Add. 4, 7 January 2006, available at http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/106/40/PDF/G0610640.pdf?OpenElement (last visited 1 April 2010), para. 68, finding that, in Nigeria in 2005, 3.7% of an estimated prisoner population of 44,000 remained in prison because of lost case files.

54 For further information, see Rachael Stokes, Mel James, and Jeff Christian, Handbook on Prisoner File Management, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna, 2008.

55 Standard Minimum Rules, Art. 53(1).

56 ibid., Art. 53(3).

57 Ibid., Art. 53(2).

58 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 61.

59 ICRC, above note 2, p 22.

60 OHCHR, above note 6, p. 4.

61 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 61.

62 Ibid., p. 49.

63 Ibid., above note 4, p. 57.

64 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, ‘10th General Report on the CPT's activities covering the period 1 January to 31 December 1999’, CPT/Inf (2000) 13, 18 August 2000, para. 31, available at http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/annual/rep-10.htm (last visited 1 April 2010).

65 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 53.

66 Ibid., pp. 19–20.

67 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 172.

68 ICCPR, Art. 6(5); AP I, Art. 76(3); AP II, Art. 6(4).

69 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 10.

70 Ibid., p. 55.

71 ibid., p. 52.

72 Ibid., p. 54.

73 Ibid., p. 13.

74 World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, Women's Health in Prison: Correcting Gender Inequity in Prison Health, Copenhagen, 2009, para. 44, available at http://www.euro.who.int/Document/E92347.pdf (last visited 16 March 2010).

75 Megan Bastick and Laurel Townhead, Women in Prison: A Commentary on the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva, June 2008, p. 66, available at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/WiP-CommentarySMRs200806-English.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

76 Quaker United Nations Office, ‘Submission to Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women: eliminating discrimination against women in prison’, Geneva, 4 January 2005, p. 11, available at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/20050104CEDAW.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

77 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 54.

78 OHCHR, above note 6, p. 3.

79 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 171.

80 Fitzpatrick, Joan, ‘The use of international human rights norms to combat violence against women’, in Rebecca J. Cook (ed.), Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1994, p. 544Google Scholar.

81 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 14.

82 C. Lindsey, above note 7, pp. 175–176.

83 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, above note 10, p. 15.

84 Townhead, Laurel, Pre-trial Detention of Women and its Impact on their Children, Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva, February 2007Google Scholar, available at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/WiP-pretrial-detention200702-English.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010); Oliver Robertson, Children Imprisoned by Circumstance, Quaker United Nations Office, Geneva, April 2008, available at http://www.quno.org/geneva/pdf/humanrights/women-in-prison/200804childrenImprisonedByCircumstance-English.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

85 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 17.

86 OHCHR, above note 6, p. 2.

87 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 19.

88 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, above note 10, p. 15.

89 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 163.

90 Ibid.

91 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 21.

92 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, above note 10, p. 16.

93 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 75.

94 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, above note 10, p. 17.

95 European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, The CPT standards – ‘Substantive’ sections of the CPT's General Reports, CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2004, Strasbourg, September 2004, p. 65, available at http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards.pdf (last visited 1 April 2010).

96 C. Lindsey, above note 7, p. 201.

97 M. Bastick and L. Townhead, above note 75.

98 Standard Minimum Rules, Art. 36(4).

99 T. Atabay, above note 4, p. 38.

100 See http://www.huridocs.org (last visited 16 March 2010).

101 See OHCHR, Working with the United Nations Human Rights Programme: A Handbook for Civil Society, New York and Geneva, 2008, p. 153, available at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/CivilSociety/Pages/Handbook.aspx (last visited 1 April 2010).

102 See http://www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/chr/special/themes.htm (last visited 16 March 2010) for a list and links to the websites of Special Procedures.

103 In addition, all three regional human rights regimes – the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the Council of Europe – have mechanisms that can protect the rights of detainees. Information can be obtained from their respective websites: http://www.cidh.oas.org; http://www.achpr.org; and http://www.echr.coe.int/echr/Homepage_EN (last visited 16 March 2010).

104 OHCHR, above note 6, p. 2.