E/CN.4/1997/7/Add.2 page 15 fetters while confined in any place outside walls of the prison". However, under Rule 644 (i), "No convicted prisoner inside the prison other than a camp or temporary prison shall be fettered except on the ground that he is violent, dangerous or had escaped or attempted to escape". Rules 650 and 651 establish respectively the categories of prisoners who are exempted absolutely and ordinarily exempted. Rule 645 provides that "imposition of fetters and handcuffs requires the order of the Superintendent, and the Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Superintendent shall not order any prisoner to be put in fetters or handcuffs on his own authority except in the case of emergency in which case a report shall be made to the Superintendent in writing on his next visit to the prison". 53. Rule 646 states, "If the Superintendent considers it necessary to impose fetters on any convicted or under-trial prisoner he shall record on the history ticket the reason for the imposition of the fetters and the period for which these are imposed. The date on which the fetters are actually removed shall also be noted on the history ticket". Further, pursuant to an amendment of 18 July 1988, "A record shall also be kept in the Fetters Register given the number and name of the prisoner, the date on which fetters were imposed and the reason for considering use of fetters necessary. The date on which fetters are actually removed shall also be noted in the register". 54. As noted above (para. 4), the Special Rapporteur visited Lahore and Karachi Central Jails. During his visits to these locations, the Special Rapporteur did not see one prisoner with bar fetters. Consequently, given that their usage in prisons is reputedly commonplace and open, the Special Rapporteur made specific requests to the respective Superintendents, and, in the case of Lahore, to the Inspector General, to visit a prisoner wearing fetters. In each case, the Superintendents or Inspector General responded that they currently had no prisoners wearing fetters. They acknowledged that fetters were used when prisoners were transported to the courts or to other facilities, but indicated that the imposition of fetters inside the prison was normally not necessary. In Lahore, the Inspector General and the Superintendent initially denied that they even had fetters available to show the Special Rapporteur. However, at his insistence, a bar fetter as described above (para. 50) was shown to the Special Rapporteur. Furthermore, during the visit to the punishment cell block of Lahore Central Jail, in which a large number of the cells were completely empty, a member of the delegation saw approximately a dozen leg irons neatly stacked against the wall of an empty cell. 55. In Lahore, where the Special Rapporteur had more time to inspect the facilities and to receive testimony from prisoners, he questioned prisoners in the punishment cells as to why he saw no bar fetters. One prisoner indicated that they had all been removed the previous evening in anticipation of the Special Rapporteur’s visit. He also indicated that prisoners had been removed from the now empty cells in the punishment cell block. 56. On the basis of this testimony, which was corroborated by other prisoners who agreed that fetters had been removed from some 200 to 300 prisoners, the Special Rapporteur requested to see the Fetters Register. He inspected several pages of the register, which contained a list of several hundred names and the dates on which fetters had been imposed. However, most of these

Select target paragraph3

Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents