Innocent Anaba
10 October 2008
The United Nation's High Commission for Human Rights has launched the Dignity and Justice for Detainees Week.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, who spoke at the launch, called on national human rights institutions, non-governmental organiza-tions, the media and other partners worldwide to pay special attention to the rights of people who are deprived of their liberty in prisons and other places of detention. "There are problems relating to detention in almost all countries, both in the North and in the South, in the developed world and the developing world," she said.
The initiative aims to make the public aware that detainees do not forego their human rights while in detention, to help national authorities to improve respect for detainees' rights, and to raise the international profile of issues related to the rights of detainees.
"The nature of the problems can vary enormously. It may center around a particular piece of legislation that seeks to short-circuit due process, or omits essential safeguards, or it may manifest itself in widespread, open-ended detention of people for political or other reasons which, under international law, should not be considered as crimes," Ms Pillay said.
The High Commissioner underlined that her office is constantly engaged in the battle against impunity. "We are not against prisons and detention centers per se, but they should be reserved for those who really deserve to be there according to the extensive, detailed and fundamentally sound international standards governing criminal justice," she added.
During this week, all partners are encouraged to adopt a wide perspective on detention in order to address the plight of especially vulnera-ble groups. They should look, in particular, at the situation of women and girls, children, people with disabilities and migrants (including refugees and asylum seekers) deprived of their liberty.
OHCHR is also funding projects by a number of national human rights institutions to raise the issue of detainees' rights. They include work-shops on the rights of detainees, human rights training for prison wardens and publicity campaigns to enhance awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights among detainees, law enforcement and judicial officers, and the general public.
While the Dignity and Justice for Detainees Week will serve to draw the spotlight onto de-tention, sustained improvements in the condi-tions of detainees will require action before the week begins and after it.
"We would like people to focus on the issue longer term, since many of the problems we are focusing on are systemic, and it will take time and sustained effort to bring about major improvements," said the High Commissioner.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
