Women’s health in prison: Action guidance and checklists to review current policies and practices

The checklists in this document are an important tool in ensuring greater safety and better quality medical care for women in prison, and are designed to assist a review of current policies and practices relating to women’s health in prisons.

They follow from the Declaration on women’s health in prison: correcting gender inequity in prison health and a background paper on women’s health in prison, published in April 2009 by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and are therefore based on the evidence presented.

While the checklists are aimed primarily at decision- and policy-makers, senior prison managers and prison health staff, there are important interconnections between them. They can also be useful for civil society organizations working on or monitoring the situation of women and their health in prison settings.