D. Places of detention
51. Detainees must be held in ‘places officially recognised as places of
detention’.492
52. Registers should be kept and be accessible of the names and places of
detention and those detainees held there as well as those responsible for those
places.493 This register should include, in respect of each prisoner, their identity,
the reasons for their detention, the hour of admission and release, the reasons
for arrest, the time of the arrest, their first appearance before a court or judicial
authority, the identity of the law enforcement officials and precise information
about the place of custody.494
53. Under the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances family members are entitled to information on a detained
relative including the date, time and place of the detention.495
54. Records should be kept of interrogations.496
E. Safeguards for Particular Categories of Detainees
55. All detained people have the right to equal treatment but particular allowances
will also have to be made for certain special categories including women,
juveniles, older persons, non-nationals, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities,
those who are ill and persons with disabilities. Some groups may need
particular protection from abuse from other detainees as well as from those
detaining them.
Women in detention
56. The UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners set out basic
ground rules for the detention of women. These are:
Women in custody should be supervised by female members of staff;
They should also be held in separate institutions or segregated within an
institution under the authority of female staff;
No male staff should enter the part of the institution set apart for women
unaccompanied by a female member of staff;
In institutions where women are held in custody, facilities for pre-natal and
post-natal care and treatment must be provided;
492
Human Rights Committee, General Comment No.20, 44th Session (1992), para 11.
Ibid. See also Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Article 10,
Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and summary
Executions, Principle 6.
494 Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners Rule 7. Body of Principles for the Protection
of all Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, Principle 12(1).
495 Article 18, ICCPED.
496 Ibid. See also Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or
Imprisonment, Principle 12.
493
92
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