Special Report to the Storting Document 4:3 (2018–2019) 82 12 Prevention of solitary ­confinement This report shows that many inmates are locked up in their cells for large parts of the day, entailing a risk of harmful effects on their health. As mentioned above, the number of inmates who develop health problems and the severity of such problems increase with the length of confinement. Solitary confinement can also lead to subsequent withdrawal and self-isolation (see Chapter 4 Solitary confinement is an intrusive measure and detrimental to health). The serious risk of harmful effects places strict demands on the prison’s capacity for preventing solitary confinement. The lack of human contact in Norwegian prisons is partly a result of factors controlled by the governing authority and partly of factors controlled by the prisons themselves. The regions, the Directorate, the Ministry and the prisons themselves must therefore make every effort to prevent solitary confinement. Our findings indicate that there is a need to strengthen the work of the Correctional Service in order to prevent situations and incidents that trigger solitary confinement. Human rights standards on prevention The UN Convention against Torture obliges the state parties to put effective measures in place to prevent situations that entail a risk of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.262 It was in recognition of the importance of preventing violation of the absolute prohibition against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment that the UN’s state parties adopted an optional protocol on prevention in 2002. The optional protocol established: ‘’that the effective prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment requires education and a combination of various legislative, administrative, judicial and other measures’. 263 Under the Nelson Mandela Rules, the prison administration’s preventive efforts should include effective measures to prevent conflicts and incidents that can lead to disproportionate isolation or solitary confinement. ­Prison ­administrations are encouraged to use conflict prevention or other dispute resolution mechanisms to prevent or resolve conflicts.264 Staff should also receive training in preventive and defusing techniques, such as negotiation and mediations.265 262 See the UN Convention against Torture Article 2(1), cf. Article 16(1). See the UN Committee against Torture General Comment No 2, Implementation of Article 2 by States parties, 24 January 2008, CAT/C/GC/2, and the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), The approach of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture to the concept of prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 30 December 2010, CAT/OP/12/6. 263 Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 264 The Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 38(1). 265 The Nelson Mandela Rules, Rule 76(c). 83 ‹ 12