ESSEX PAPER 3: INITIAL GUIDANCE ON THE INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN NELSON MANDELA RULES •  prisoners’ health does not deteriorate but rather treatment is aimed at recovery and rehabilitation; •  the prison administration always follows the medical advice and recommendations of health-care staff;217 •  wherever possible women physicians and nurses attend to women prisoners to conduct examinations or treatment.218 Caregiving Mission of Health-Care Staff The Essex Group noted that Rule 25 of the Nelson Mandela Rules pinpoints caregiving as the fundamental mission of health-care staff in prisons. The experts advised that the rest of the Rules on health-care should be read from this starting point as it provides the framework for health-care in prisons in line with international human rights standards and norms.219 They also pointed out that the implementation of this fundamental mission requires states to ensure the adequate allocation of resources to health-care in prisons. Interdisciplinary Team Rule 25(2) requires the health-care service within prison to comprise an interdisciplinary team, including with expertise in psychology, psychiatry, dental care and pre- and post-natal care.220 This is reiterated in Rule 78 of the Nelson Mandela Rules that provide that ‘[s]o far as possible, prison staff shall include a sufficient number of specialists such as psychiatrics, psychologists, social workers, teachers and trade instructors’. Read together with Rule 29(1)(b) which requires provision for child-specific health-care, the interdisciplinary team must include a child-health specialist where children are in prison with a parent. This aligns with the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules) which require that a child health specialist is available ‘to determine any treatment and medical needs’221 of a child accompanying a parent.222 European Court of Human Rights, Thematic Report Health-related issues in the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (2015) Chapter IV. Health of Detainees. A. Introduction (p. 13) available at: http://www.echr.coe.int/ Documents/Research_report_health.pdf 217  Due to common histories of violence, including sexual violence, the need for sexual and reproductive healthcare and due to cultural reasons it is generally acknowledged that female health-care staff should attend to women prisoners wherever possible. Rule 10(2), United Nations Rules for Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) A/C.3/65/L.5 (6 October 2010) requires that an examination is undertaken by a woman physician or nurse if a woman prisoner requests so, unless this is not possible and the situation requires urgent medical attention. 218  See Principles of Medical Ethics relevant to the role of health personnel, particularly physicians, in the protection of prisoners and detainees against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 37/194. New York, United Nations, 1982 available at: http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r194.htm (UN Principles of Medical Ethics) 219  UN Committee against Torture, Observations of the Committee on the revision of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR), 16 December 2013, UN-Doc. CAT/C/51/4, para. 24 available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/53429c014.html 220  Rule 9. 221  The Bangkok Rules recognise the central role of both parents and clarify that in para. 12 of the preliminary observations that some of the rules apply equally to male prisoners and to offenders who are fathers. 222  Penal Reform International and the Essex Human Rights Centre | 62