Section one Context International developments After several years of revisions and negotiations, the UN General Assembly adopted a revised version of the Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners on 17 December 2015, which was agreed to be named ‘The Nelson Mandela Rules’. This significant development updates the original document adopted by the UN Economic and Social Council in 1957, and reflects many of the developments in human rights standards in prisons since then. In August 2015, the UN Human Rights Committee published its Concluding Observations from its review of the UK’s progress in implementing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In its wide-ranging conclusions, the Committee called on the government to ensure that any legislation passed in lieu of the Human Rights Act 1998 is aimed at strengthening the status and protections of international human rights in the domestic legal order. Specifically relating to detention, the Committee called for measures to prevent self-inflicted deaths and self-harm in custody and the establishment of a statutory time limit on the duration of immigration detention. In relation to youth justice, the Committee reiterated its recommendation that the UK raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility in line with international standards, and also recommended that efforts be made to reduce the number of children in the juvenile justice system. Finally, the Committee reiterated its previous recommendation that legislation denying any convicted prisoner the right to vote be amended. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture published a report examining the unique experiences of women, girls and LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) detainees and how the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international law applied to them. This important report reflects the fact that the international framework relating to torture and ill-treatment evolved largely in response to practices and situations that disproportionately affected men, thereby failing to have a gendered or intersectional lens.43 43. United Nations General Assembly (5 January 2016) Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/31/57, available at: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/ HRC/31/57 [accessed 01/11/16]. 23