UNDERSTANDING DIGNITY AND SECURITY IN PRISONS
Understanding dignity
and security in prisons
1. Dignity in detention: a
fundamental right
Dignity is inherent to all human beings. It recognises the
innate worth and right of individuals to be treated with
respect and humanity. It is enshrined in Article 10 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR) that: ‘[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty
shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the
inherent dignity of the human person’. The UN Human
Rights Committee specified that respect for human
dignity constitutes a norm of general international law not
subject to derogation.2
As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
(IACHR) stressed, deprivation of liberty establishes a
regime ‘of absolute control, loss of privacy, limitation
of living space and, above all, a radical decline in
the individual’s means of defending himself’. The
Commission concludes that as a consequence the act
of imprisonment ‘carries with it a specific and material
commitment to protect the prisoner’s human dignity’.3
While its most fundamental component is the absolute
prohibition of torture, the right to dignity includes the
provision of adequate material conditions, including
sufficient food, water and access to healthcare. Dehumanising or humiliating prison routines can also
infringe on the dignity of prisoners, such as particularly
uncomfortable prison uniforms. In Texas4 and Rwanda,5
for example, male prisoners were forced to wear pink
prison uniforms, purposefully humiliating them. Obliging
women prisoners to wear overalls as prison uniform may
have the same effect in that it forces them to undress
when using the toilet. In some countries, problematic
practices, not justified by security considerations, include
pointless routines such as prisoners having to march
and sing patriotic songs or only being allowed to walk in
certain ways.6
The right to dignity also includes operating fair and
just rules and procedures, which do not discriminate,
and promoting respectful relations between staff and
detainees. Attitudes, behaviours, public exposure or
abusive language can equally infringe human dignity,
taking into account what individuals experience as
humiliating or debasing.
The responsibility of the state goes beyond preventing
active abuse against prisoners: it includes refraining from
humiliating routines that infringe on human dignity and
serve no security or other purpose, and ensuring that the
suffering involved in places of detention does not exceed
the level inherent in the deprivation of liberty.
The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners7 acknowledge this principle, especially in
the areas of the Rules revised in 2015.8 One of the
overarching basic principles in the revised Rules is that
all prisoners should be treated with respect for their
inherent dignity and value as human beings. This is
also expressed in what the Rules require in terms of
staff training, which includes the rights and duties of
prison staff in the exercise of their functions. Explicit
components of these rights and duties are respect for
the human dignity of all prisoners and the prohibition
of certain conduct, in particular torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Training
should also encompasses security and safety − including
the concept of dynamic security, the use of force and
instruments of restraint, and the management of violent
offenders, with due consideration to preventive and
defusing techniques, such as negotiation and mediation.
Training in the psychosocial needs of prisoners and
2. General Comment No 29, States of emergency (Article 4), CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.11, 31 August 2001, para.13a.
3. Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Special report on the human rights situation at the Challapalca prison in Peru, para 113; IACHR,
Report No.41/99: Minors in Detention, Honduras, March 10 1999, para.135.
4. For example, see ‘Arizona criminals find jail too in-’tents’’, CNN, 27 July 1999; and ‘The cruelest sheriff in America’, Waging Non-Violence website, 27
July 2009. http://edition.cnn.com/US/9907/27/tough.sheriff/; http://wagingnonviolence.org/2009/07/the-cruelest-sheriff-in-america/. <Accessed 23
September 2013>
5. For example, see ‘Rwanda: prison reform by colour, chants and drums’, The Guardian, 15 March 2011. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/
mar/15/letter-from-rwanda-prisons-walls. <Accessed 23 September 2013>
6. ‘Kazakhstan’s Living Gulags’, BBC Radio 4, 19 August 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03859mq <Accessed 23 September 2013>
7. The revised United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), adopted by the UN Commission
on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on 22 May 2015, endorsed by the Economic and Social Council on 9 September 2015, UN-Doc. E/
RES/2015/20 and adopted by UN General Assembly Third Committee on 5 November 2015, UN-Doc. A/C.3/70/L.3 (at the time of printing this
Resolution was pending adoption by the plenary of the UN General Assembly.)
8. Areas revised included respect for prisoners’ inherent dignity and value as human beings; medical and health services; disciplinary action and
punishment; investigation of deaths in custody, as well as any signs or allegations of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners; protection
and special needs of vulnerable groups; as well as training of staff.
Penal Reform International | Balancing security and dignity in prisons: a framework for preventive monitoring
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