Director-General/Executive Director
Distinguished co-chairs
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to be here to address the Group of Friends of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Nelson Mandela Rules, and to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela.
After spending more than a quarter of a century behind bars, Nelson Mandela said that “the way that a society treats its prisoners is one of the sharpest reflections of its character.”
As this Group convenes in-person for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the right time to reflect on the world’s prison population of over 11 million people, who have suffered the impact of the pandemic greatly.
In a world where prison conditions were already too often below the standard required by the Mandela Rules, the pandemic deepened the cracks.
In particular, the crisis underlined the problem of prison overcrowding in many countries.
It is estimated that the majority of countries are operating prisons above their maximum capacity.
Even before the pandemic, overcrowding was a driver of conflict and violence in prisons, and an obstacle to proper nutrition, health and hygiene, as well as rehabilitation and care.
These factors contributed greatly to the rapid spread of the virus inside prisons.
Data gathered by Justice Project Pakistan, an NGO, found that at least 612,000 prisoners had been infected with COVID-19 in 122 countries.
Thousands are reported to have died.
At the same time, measures to contain the spread of the virus have taken a severe toll on the mental health and well-being of prisoners, as well as on prison staff.
Restrictions on meaningful human contact and constructive engagement with prisoners are contrary to the Mandela Rules.
While these restrictions were enacted as emergency measures in response to an unprecedented health crisis, they should not become a “new normal”.
The economic consequences of the pandemic and other crises have also strained national budgets, threatening to reduce the resources allocated to prisons.
Prisons are already under-funded and unprioritized in many countries. Insufficient resources can mean a lack of access to things as basic as nutrition and medication.
The lesson of the pandemic should not be to forgo adequate prison environments and practices.
It should instead be to recognize that many prison systems are not well-equipped for their demanding tasks, and to address long-standing deficiencies in policy, budget, infrastructure, and management systems.
COVID is a wake-up call, an opportunity to re-commit to the Mandela Rules, and to the principles that drove the General Assembly to adopt them.
Excellencies,
Our prisons say much about who we are, and what we want to achieve.
Prisons are meant to be places of justice and rehabilitation.
They are not tools to inflict suffering, nor to strip people of their humanity.
We all know that the vast majority of prisoners will eventually return to their communities.
Experience has shown time and again that crime and violence can be cyclical, especially when we neglect root causes of offending, and deny people second chances.
Inhumane and dysfunctional prisons do not leave our societies any safer from violence and crime.
In contrast, rehabilitative prison environments help social cohesion and reduce reoffending.
That is the heart of the Nelson Mandela Rules.
The Rules provide a universal blueprint for humane prison conditions and effective prison management that safeguard the fundamental human rights of prisoners.
Member States should look to live up to the Mandela Rules in their letter, but also in their spirit and the spirit of the man whose name they carry.
That spirit extends beyond the provisions of the Rules, to the approach that countries take to imprisonment, and their commitment to other relevant UN Standards.
It starts with an awareness of who is occupying our prisons.
The majority of prisoners worldwide come from disadvantaged and marginalized backgrounds.
Many of them are charged with petty and non-violent offences.
Many are yet to be sentenced. Data gathered by UNODC reveals that in the period from 2000 to 2019, the percentage of unsentenced prisoners remained between 29 and 31 per cent, globally.
Alternatives to incarceration should be more seriously considered in appropriate cases, in line with the Tokyo Rules on non-custodial measures.
Gender-sensitive prison management is crucial, guided by the Bangkok Rules on the treatment of women prisoners.
Women continue to face their own unique challenges behind bars, and prisons in many countries do not have the capacities to address those challenges.
Prisons facilities and programmes need to meet the particular healthcare requirements of women, as well as the needs of pregnant women, nursing mothers, and women prisoners with children.
Gender-specific non-custodial measures should also be considered, taking into account the backgrounds of women offenders, many of whom have been victims themselves.
Another essential component of a functioning prison system is the support provided to prison staff.
Countries need to value their work and invest more in building their capacities.
Taking a closer look at our prisons, their populations and their staff is a pathway to true justice, as envisaged by the Nelson Mandela Rules.
This Group of Friends, and all of its 34 members, are playing a crucial role in promoting the effective application of the Mandela Rules around the world, through your political support and in-kind contributions.
As the custodian of the Nelson Mandela Rules and the other standards I mentioned, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime is hard at work generating positive change in prisons systems.
In 2021-22, amidst COVID, UNODC provided technical assistance and advisory services on prison-related challenges to more than 40 Member States.
We have also produced extensive technical guidance on prison reform, including more than 20 handbooks, training curricula and other tools.
Last year, Our Office worked with DPO and OHCHR to develop a UN System Common Position on Incarceration.
I was very proud to present that Common Position to a high-level meeting of this Group of Friends at the 30th Crime Commission.
We will continue to use the Common Position as a platform to promote the Mandela Rules and provide focused and coordinated UN support on prison reform.
In this regard, I welcome the CCPCJ’s recent resolution tasking UNODC to convene an intergovernmental expert group to develop model strategies on reducing reoffending.
Looking forward, I hope to see more countries join this Group of Friends, and I invite the co-chairs to continue to their good efforts to expand its membership.
UNODC will seek to step up our efforts to inform Member States about the Mandela Rules, and to promote their implementation more widely and effectively.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When we commit to “leaving no one behind”, we must mean what we say.
Many of those who are incarcerated have done great wrong, but all of them, without exception, are human beings.
A humane approach to prisons preserves the humanity of those who are on either side of the bars.
Despite his long years in prison, Nelson Mandela never lost his humanity, and he went on to change the course of history.
Let us honour his life by making sure that prisons around the world are equipped to contribute to a lasting peace in our communities, rooted in justice and human dignity for all.
Thank you.