A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) wishes to express its gratitude for the invaluable contribution of the various organizations and individuals who participated in the elaboration of its publication Human Rights and Prisons—a human rights training package for prison officials. The two main organizations responsible for drafting the text, under OHCHR's guidance, were Penal Reform International, a London-based international non-governmental organization concerned with prison conditions and penal reform, and the International Centre for Prison Studies (located within the School of Law at King's College, University of London), which aims at assisting Governments and relevant agencies in developing appropriate policies on prisons and the use of imprisonment. A draft version of Human Rights and Prisons was reviewed during an experts meeting organized by OHCHR in Geneva (9-12 March 1998). Practitioners and experts in the field participating in the meeting included Mr. Andrew Coyle from the International Centre for Prison Studies (United Kingdom); Mr. Joseph Etima, Commissioner of Prisons (Uganda); Mr. Henk Greven, former Director-General of Prison Administration and Child Care Probation (the Netherlands); Mr. Yuichi Kaido from the Centre for Prisoners' Rights (Japan); Ms. Irena Kriznik, Adviser to the Government of Slovenia; Ms. Julita Lemgruber, Assistant to the Secretary of Justice of Brazil; Mr. Miroslaw Nowak from the Central Board of Prison Service (Poland); Mr. Ahmed Othmani, Chairman of Penal Reform International; Dr. Rani Shankardass from the Centre for Contemporary Studies (India); and Prof. Dirk Van Zyl Smit, Professor of Criminology at the University of Cape Town (South Africa). The Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa appointed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Professor Victor Dankwa, also joined the group of experts. The United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention* (Vienna), the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (San Jose, Costa Rica) and the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) were also represented at the meeting and provided various suggestions. The training package was revised on the basis of substantive comments made by the participants and was piloted through courses offered to prison staff through the OHCHR Technical Cooperation Programme in the Field of Human Rights. Finally, OHCHR would like to thank the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (San Jose, Costa Rica) for translating into Spanish a draft English version of the Manual. * Renamed in October 2002 the Crime Programme of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. iv