What do I mean when I talk of human rights in this context and where can they be found. Human rights as an idea of humane treatment of people, of respect for each individual, can be found in most of the world's religious and philosophical systems. However both within and between such systems there is great dispute as to what rights exists and how they should be respected. A greater measure of treatment on human rights can be found in international law, at least following world war two. International lawyers believe that some rights, of which the right to be free from torture is the one perhaps most relevant to the prisons context, are guaranteed to people regardless of whether or not the state they find themselves has signed up to any international treaty or not. Greater rights are accorded to people if their state has become a party to an international human rights treaty. These treaties may be general in character, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights or the European Convention on Human Rights, which establish a range of rights (for example to liberty, free expression, privacy, fair trial, freedom from torture) which apply to everyone. Alternatively they may be specifically concerned with particular circumstances or groups of people. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture are the most relevant for the prisons context. Much of what I have to say about specific human rights standards in relation to prisons draws on these international conventions and on the interpretations of them made by international human rights tribunals and committees of experts which have been established to implement these conventions. Finally, again in the prisons context, it is worth mentioning standard setting instruments such as the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners or its Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment. While these do not give rise to individual rights in international law they are generally much more detailed than human rights treaties and provide a set of standards for prison officials. Prison systems which comply with such standards are unlikely to violate human rights. All these international provisions are designed, however, only to set minimum standards, The protection of human rights is primarily a task for national law and national administration. International provisions are there to provide a check on the quality of human rights protection by national authorities. They are not a substitute and ultimately the best means of securing human rights is to have national authorities which are committed to their protection and a national system of law which ensures that they live up to such commitments. In a short talk such as this it is not possible for me to cover all the human rights provisions relating to prisons but I hope that I will say something useful about the most important ones. The right to trial within a reasonable time Ensure that someone is brought to trial within a reasonable time is usually a matter for the prosecuting and judicial authorities rather than prison officials. However failure to guarantee that right can cause major problems for prison authorities as prisons become overcrowded with people awaiting trial. As there can be many reasons for delay in bringing people to trial international institutions have been reluctant to lay down precise time limits for this. However some principles have emerged One is that a person should only be kept in prison awaiting trial where good reasons for doing so, either because there is good reason to believe that if released they would not come to trial or because it is a very serious offence. The authorities should consider whether other measures, such as requiring someone to pay a bond or report regularly to a police station, might satisfy their concerns. A second principle is that a person detained in prison before trial should be entitled to seek a review of his detention before an independent court. The prosecution would have to establish before that court that good reasons exist for keeping someone in prison before their trial As regards what is a reasonable time to be in poison before trial the European Court of Human Rights has indicated that a number of factors must be c including the complexity of the case and the need for the prosecution to assemble its case, the conduct of the defendant and whether he or she seeks to delay the trial in order to better prepare their defence, and the 16 OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3