RISK FACTORS AND MEASURES TO REDUCE RISK violence experienced by women, including women in detention, and the harmful long-term consequences for the women themselves, their families and the community. Monitoring bodies can, within the framework of a holistic approach to their work, and depending on their capacity and resources, have a key role to play in all of these activities. Their access to women deprived of their liberty and the information they can gather on the impact of such laws on some of these women puts them in a unique position to develop recommendations to their governments, deriving from real experiences, to reform their laws in order to reduce the risks women face. 2. Certain times that heighten risk a. Police custody and pre-trial detention All detainees are at heightened risk of torture or illtreatment during the first period after arrest. This is the time when detainees are more likely to be coerced and pressurised to confess to criminal acts or provide information about such acts and persons. Women are vulnerable to sexual abuse and other forms of violence during this period, as has been documented on numerous occasions, including by the SPT.30 In some societies where the role of women in public life and contact with men other than their family members are limited due to laws and attitudes that discriminate against women, the interrogation by men is likely to intimidate women and make them feel extremely vulnerable. This also contains a threat of sexual abuse, whether or not such a threat is realised. Women are also usually much more vulnerable than male detainees during this time, because the majority of women who confront the criminal justice system in countries worldwide have a lower educational and economic status than men (often dependent on their spouses) and are less aware of their legal rights. There are numerous reports of illiterate and poor women signing statements the contents of which they do not understand, while they are held by the police, due to abuse, coercion or fear of abuse. even for short periods, can be severe if the women suspects have dependent children, and in particular if they are the sole carers of the children. Even a mother’s short period in prison may have damaging, long-term consequences for the children concerned, causing immense worry to the mother at this time. Monitoring bodies, taking the Bangkok Rules and the revised Standard Minimum Rules as a reference point,31 can assess whether any or all of the following measures to safeguard women against ill-treatment and torture in police custody and pre-trial detention are in place, and make recommendations to improve such safeguards where they are insufficient: medical examinations by an independent healthcare professional on admission and on release or transfer to another facility; prompt access to legal counsel; prompt access to families; supervision by female staff and strict separation from male detainees; the existence of an independent, effective complaints mechanism and the regular monitoring of pre-trial detention facilities by monitoring bodies, which include women members.32 An important systemic safeguard, which would not only protect women from facing the risks in detention but also reduce the harm done by the detention, also taking into account the best interests of any children concerned, would be to use pre-trial detention only when strictly necessary for women, in line with the provisions of the Bangkok Rules, Rule 58, which requires that ‘….diversionary measures and pretrial and sentencing alternatives, shall be implemented wherever appropriate and possible’. This is one example where the recommendations of monitoring bodies can go beyond the narrow focus of prisons to encompass legislation and practice in relation to the use of pre-trial detention by judicial authorities. b. Transit The same risks faced in police custody continue in pretrial detention, especially in systems where the authority responsible for pre-trial detention is not separate from the authority which is responsible for law enforcement. (eg. the Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for security and the police service, rather than a Ministry of Justice with a civil status and culture). Detainees are at particular risk of ill-treatment and torture during transit between different institutions by law enforcement officials, since this is a time when there are usually very little, if any, safeguards against abuse and prisoners are totally unprotected. Women prisoners are at heightened risk of sexual abuse during this period,33 in particular where male and female prisoners are not separated and where female prisoners are transported by male staff. An inspection in the UK, for example, found that ‘escort vans may carry a mixture of men, women and children, sometimes all three together’.34 In addition to considerations relating directly to the risk or fear of torture and ill-treatment, it is important also to note that the impact of being held in pre-trial detention, In China, however, the Escorting Rules issued by China’s Supreme People’s Court provide for transfers to be conducted with female-only escorts. Moreover, male and 30. See for example, Report on the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to Honduras, CAT/OP/HND/1, 10 February 2010, para 55; Report on the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to Brazil, CAT/OP/BRA/1, 5 July 2012, para. 80. 31. Bangkok Rules, Rule 56, Revised Standard Minimum Rules. 32. Bangkok Rules, Rule 25 (3). 33. See for example, Amnesty International, Mexico: Violence against women and justice denied in Mexico State, October 2006, Ref. AMR 41/028/2006, pp6-7. 34. HM Inspectorate of Prisons, UK, Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP & YOI New Hall, 8 – 19 June 2015, p11. 8 | Penal Reform International | Women in Detention: a guide to gender-sensitive monitoring