PRISONS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Stephen Livingstone Human Rights Law Centre University of Nottingham England Presentation to Workshop on HUMAN RIGHTS IN PRISONS Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Yerevan, Armenia,16-19 February 1996 The treatment of people in prisons has always been a central concern of human rights law. The appalling treatment of people in prison camps before and during the Second World War was a very fresh memory to those who drafted the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. A determination to prevent such treatment occurring again has been an important influence on those who drafted subsequent human rights Conventions, such as the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966. Two of the most important human rights treaties of the 1980s, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984 and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1987, have particular significance for those detained in prisons or police stations. These treaties reflect the continuing concern on the part of the international community that the means be found to ensure that people in prisons are treated humanely. The emphasis on humane treatment is important. As Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Armenia is a party, provides: All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. Human Rights law is thus opposed to any idea that those detained in prison, whether they be convicted of a criminal offence or not, can no longer be regarded as deserving of treatment appropriate to a human being. However human rights law is not opposed to the idea of imprisonment as such. All human rights treaties recognise that states may legitimately deprive people of their liberty on conviction of a criminal offence and, in more limited circumstances, that they may deprive someone of their liberty in order to bring them to trial for an offence. Moreover human rights law recognises that many of the rights people are entitled to in the outside world may legitimately be reduced in order for prison to function safely and efficiently. Some rights simply do not apply to those in prison. The right to be free from compulsory labour is a good example. Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights contain an exception to this right in respect of those who are detained. Presumably this is because those who drafted these Conventions recognised that prison systems throughout the world required prisoners to work and that man prisons would become very much more difficult if this requirement were to be taken away. Overall therefore one can see that human rights law seeks to strike a balance between the rights of prisoners and the needs of prison administration. Its aim is to ensure that prisons are tun safely, humanely and efficiently in the interests of both those in them and those who operate them. OSCE ODIHR Bulletin Vol. 4 No. 3 15