25 May 1984

Meeting 21

Procedures for the effective implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

The Economic and Social Council,

Considering the importance of the recommendations contained in the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, and approved by the Council in its resolution 663/C/(XXIV) of 31 July 1957,

Noting with satisfaction the impact of the Rules on national laws and practices,

Concerned, however, that there still exist obstacles of various kinds to the full implementation of the Rules, as evidenced in the periodic United Nations reports on their implementation,

Recalling the recommendations of the Fifth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, and Council resolution 1993(LX) of 12 May 1976, in which the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control was requested at its fourth session to study the range of application of the Rules and to formulate a set of implementing procedures for the Rules,

Taking note with appreciation of the work accomplished in pursuance of that mandate by the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control at its fourth session in 1976 and at its eighth session in pursuance of the recommendations of the Sixth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, which invited the Committee to finalize the procedures in the light of its report,

1. Approves the procedures for the effective implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, as set out in the annex to the present resolution;

2. Invites Member States to take the procedures annexed hereto into consideration in the process of implementing the Rules and in their periodic reports to the United Nations;

3. Requests the Secretary-General to bring the present resolution to the attention of the Governments of the Member States, and to assist them at their request in implementing the Rules in accordance with the procedures annexed hereto.

ANNEX

Procedures for the effective implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

Procedure 1

All States whose standards for the protection of all persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment fall short of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners shall adopt the Rules.

Commentary

The General Assembly, in its resolution 2858(XXVI) of 20 December 1971, invited the attention of Member States to the Standard Minimum Rules and recommended that they should be effectively implemented in the administration of penal and correctional institutions and that favourable consideration should be given to their incorporation in national legislation. Some States may have standards that are more advanced than the Rules, and the adoption of the Rules is therefore not requested on the part of such States. Where States feel that the Rules need to be harmonized with their legal system and adapted to their culture, the emphasis is placed on the substance rather than the letter of the Rules.

Procedure 2

Subject, as necessary, to their adaptation to the existing laws and culture but without deviation from the spirit and purpose of the Rules, the Standard Minimum Rules shall be embodied in national legislation and other regulations.

Commentary

This procedure emphasizes that it is necessary to embody the Rules within national legislation and regulations, thus covering also some aspects of procedure 1.

Procedure 3

The Standard Minimum Rules shall be made available to all persons concerned, particularly to law enforcement officials and correctional personnel, for purposes of enabling their application and execution in the criminal justice system.

Commentary

This procedure stresses that the Rules, as well as national statutes and regulations implementing the Rules, should be made available to all persons concerned with their implementation, in particular law enforcement officials and correctional personnel. The effective implementation of the Rules might also involve the organization of training courses by the central administration in charge of correctional matters. The dissemination of procedures is discussed in procedures 7 to 9.

Procedure 4

The Standard Minimum Rules, as embodied in national legislation and other regulations, shall also be made available and understandable to all prisoners and all persons under detention, on their admission and during their confinement.

Commentary

To achieve the goal of the Standard Minimum Rules, it is necessary to make the Rules, as well as the implementing national statutes and regulations, available to prisoners and all persons under detention (rule 95), in order to further the awareness that the Rules represent the minimum conditions that are accepted as suitable by the United Nations. Thus, this procedure supplements the provisions contained in procedure 3.

A similar requirement, that the Rules be made available to the persons for whose protection they have been elaborated, has been already established in the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, of which articles 47 of the first Convention, 48 of the second, 127 of the third and 144 of the fourth state in common:

"The High Contracting Parties undertake, in time of peace as in time of war, to disseminate the text of the present Convention as widely as possible in their respective countries, and, in particular, to include the study thereof in their programmes of military and, if possible, civil instruction, so that the principles thereof may become known to the entire population, in particular to the armed fighting forces, the medical personnel and the chaplains." Procedure 5

States shall inform the Secretary-General of the United Nations every five years of the extent of the implementation and the progress made with regard to the application of the Standard Minimum Rules, and of the factors and difficulties, if any, affecting their implementation, by responding to the Secretary-General's questionnaire. This questionnaire should, following a specified schedule, be selective and limited to specific questions in order to secure an in-depth review and study of the problems selected. Taking into account the reports of Governments as well as other relevant information available within the United Nations system, the Secretary-General shall prepare independent periodic reports on progress made with respect to the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules. In the preparation of those reports the Secretary-General may also enlist the co-operation of specialized agencies and of the relevant intergovernmental organizations and non-governmental organizations in consultative status with th

e Economic and Social Council. The Secretary-General shall submit the above-mentioned reports to the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control for consideration and further action, as appropriate.

Commentary

It will be recalled that the Economic and Social Council, in its resolution 663/C/(XXIV) of 31 July 1957, recommended that the Secretary-General be informed every five years of the progress made with regard to the application of the Standard Minimum Rules and authorized the Secretary-General to make arrangements for the publication, as appropriate, of such information and to ask for supplementary information if necessary.

Seeking the co-operation of specialized agencies and relevant intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations is a well-established United Nations practice. In the preparation of his independent report on progress made with respect to the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules, the Secretary-General will take into account, inter alia, information available in the human rights organs of the United Nations, including the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the Human Rights Committee functioning under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The implementation work under the future convention against torture could also be taken into account, as well as any information which might be gathered under the body of principles for the protection of prisoners and detainees currently under preparation in the General Assembly.

Procedure 6

As part of the information mentioned in procedure 5 above, States should provide the Secretary-General with:

(a) Copies or abstracts of all laws, regulations and administrative measures concerning the application of the Standard Minimum Rules to persons under detention and to places and programmes of detention;

(b) Any data and descriptive material on treatment programmes, personnel and the number of persons under any form of detention, and statistics, if available;

(c) Any other relevant information on the implementation of the Rules, as well as information on the possible difficulties in their application.

Commentary

This requirement derives from both resolution 663/C/(XXIV) of the Economic and Social Council and the recommendations of the United Nations congresses on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders. Although the items of information suggested here are not specifically provided for, it seems feasible to collect such information in order to assist Member States in overcoming difficulties through an exchange of experience. Furthermore, the request for such information is analogous to the existing periodic reporting system on human rights originally established by the Economic and Social Council in its resolution 624/B/(XXII) of 1 August 1956.

Procedure 7

The Secretary-General shall disseminate the Standard Minimum Rules and the present implementing procedures, in as many languages as possible, and make them available to all States and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations concerned, in order to ensure the widest circulation of the Rules and the present implementing procedures.

Commentary

The need for the widest possible dissemination of the Standard Minimum Rules is self-evident. Close co-operation with all appropriate intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations is important to secure more effective dissemination and implementation of the Rules. Therefore, the Secretariat should maintain close contacts with such organizations and should make relevant information and data available to them. It should also encourage those organizations to disseminate information about the Standard Minimum Rules and the implementing procedures.

Procedure 8

The Secretary-General shall disseminate his reports on the implementation of the Rules, including analytical summaries of the periodic surveys, reports of the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, reports prepared for the United Nations congresses on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders as well as the reports of the congresses, scientific publications and other relevant documentation as from time to time may be deemed necessary to further the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules.

Commentary

This procedure reflects the present practice of disseminating such reports as part of the documentation for the United Nations bodies concerned, as United Nations publications or as articles in the Yearbook on Human Rights and the International Review of Criminal Policy, the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Newsletter and any other relevant publications.

Procedure 9

The Secretary-General shall ensure the widest possible reference to and use of the text of the Standard Minimum Rules by the United Nations in all its relevant programmes, including technical co-operation activities.

Commentary

It should be ensured that all relevant United Nations bodies include or make reference to the Rules and the implementing procedures, thus contributing to wider dissemination and increasing the awareness of specialized agencies, governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental bodies and the general public of the Rules and of the commitment of the Economic and Social Council and the General Assembly to their implementation.

The extent to which the Rules have any practical effect on correctional administrations depends to a great extent on the measures through which they permeate local legislative and administrative practices. They should be known and understood by a wide range of professionals and non-professionals throughout the world. Therefore there is a great need for more publicity in any form, which could also be attained by frequent references to the Rules, accompanied by public information campaigns.

Procedure 10

As part of its technical co-operation and development programmes the United Nations shall:

(a) Aid Governments, at their request, in setting up and strengthening comprehensive and humane correctional systems;

(b) Make available to Governments requesting them the services of experts and regional and interregional advisers on crime prevention and criminal justice;

(c) Promote national and regional seminars and other meetings at the professional and non-professional levels to further the dissemination of the Standard Minimum Rules and the present implementing procedures;

(d) Strengthen substantive support to regional research and training institutes in crime prevention and criminal justice that are associated with the United Nations.

The United Nations regional research and training institutes in crime prevention and criminal justice, in co-operation with national institutions, shall develop curricula and training materials, based on the Standard Minimum Rules and the present implementing procedures, suitable for use in criminal justice educational programmes at all levels, as well as in specialized courses on human rights and other related subjects.

Commentary

The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that the United Nations technical assistance programmes and the training activities of the United Nations regional institutes are used as indirect instruments for the application of the Standard Minimum Rules and the present implementing procedures. Apart from regular training courses for correctional personnel, training manuals and the like, particularly at the policy and decision-making level, provision should be made for expert advice on the questions submitted by Member States, including an expert referral system to interested States.

This expert referral system seems particularly necessary in order to implement the Rules according to their spirit and with a view to the socio-economic structure of the countries requesting such assistance.

Procedure 11

The United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control shall:

(a) Keep under review, from time to time, the Standard Minimum Rules, with a view to the elaboration of new rules, standards and procedures applicable to the treatment of persons deprived of liberty;

(b) Follow up the present implementing procedures, including periodic reporting under procedure 5 above.

Commentary

As most of the information collected in the course of periodic inquiries as well as during technical assistance missions would be brought to the attention of the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control, ensuring the effectiveness of the Rules in improving correctional practices rests with the Committee, whose recommendations would determine the future course in the application of the Rules, together with the implementing procedures. The Committee should therefore clearly define existing shortcomings in or the reasons for the lack of implementation of the Rules, inter alia, through contacts with the judiciary and ministries of justice of the countries concerned, with the view to suggesting appropriate remedies.

Procedure 12

The Committee on Crime Prevention and Control shall assist the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and any other United Nations human rights bodies, as appropriate, with recommendations relating to reports of ad hoc inquiry commissions, with respect to matters pertaining to the application and implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules.

Commentary

As the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control is the relevant body to review the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules, it should also assist the above-mentioned bodies.

Procedure 13

Nothing in the present implementing procedures should be construed as precluding resort to any other means or remedies available under international law or set forth by other United Nations bodies and agencies for the redress of violations of human rights, including the procedure on consistent patterns of gross violations of human rights under Economic and Social Council resolution 1503(XLVIII) of 27 May 1970, the communication procedure under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the communication procedure under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Commentary

Since the Standard Minimum Rules are only partly concerned with specific human rights issues, the present procedures should not exclude any avenue for redress of any violation of such rights, in accordance with existing international or regional standards and norms.