Side-events to the 12th session of the Human Rights Council

Women prisoners

The permanent mission of Thailand in Geneva organized a side-event to the 12th session of the Human Rights Council on the new draft rules for the treatment of women prisoners.

During the session, the High Commissioner stressed that new United Nations rules for the treatment of women prisoners would take into account the specific needs of women prisoners, pregnant women in detention and women in detention with young children. She said that: the “draft rules aim to ensure that women in detention are treated with respect and dignity, are not subject to overcrowded conditions, are protected against sexual abuse, and receive adequate health care for themselves, and for their young children who they may be nursing or otherwise caring for in prison”. She added that the new rules would equally encourage the creation of avenues to enable women offenders’ re-insertion in society and their participation in their own economic development.

A range of experts discussed the potential value of these new rules. They were further considered by a working group in November in preparation for their presentation at the next United Nations crime congress in 2010.

Health and prisons

The permanent mission of Austria to the United Nations, Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers) and Penal Reform International organized a second side event on health and prisons. Speakers from WHO headquarters and WHO/Europe highlighted the particular health needs of prisoners, the barriers to many prisoners’ receiving adequate health care, the risks associated with drug use in prisons and the challenges in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in prisons.