ESSEX PAPER 3: INITIAL GUIDANCE ON THE INTERPRETATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UN NELSON MANDELA RULES The Rule acknowledges that physical access to legal documents is a prerequisite to exercising one’s rights. It also seeks to protect the privacy of a prisoner’s legal matters, which is particularly important should a prisoner issue a complaint against a staff member of the prison. The Essex group recognised that lockable cabinets may not be possible in a prison context, but maintained that efforts can be made to maintain some privacy nevertheless. This implies that staff are prevented from reading prisoners’ legal documents. In order to ascertain this, prisoners should be allowed to be present while their cell is being searched. The latter policy has been established as good practice, including in jurisprudence.191 It was further noted that legal files are increasingly stored digitally and this may require prisoners being enabled to access them at a computer. Legal documents were highlighted as one of the possessions that need to accompany a prisoner if and when he/she is transferred. Transfers The Essex group noted the importance of guidance for prison administrations on the transfer and transportation of prisoners. While this area has not been revised as such within the SMR review, several provisions of other areas affect transfers directly. The experts stressed that the obligations invoked when a prisoner is transferred apply regardless of the agency or authority in charge of the transport means. This stems from the responsibility of the state for anyone it deprives of their liberty.192 In this context, the participants also noted that transport of prisoners must be carried out at the expense and under the direction of the public authorities.193 The Essex group recalled that transfers must not be exercised with the intention of punishing, repressing or discriminating the persons deprived of their liberty, their family or their representative.194 Documentation/ notification Rule 7(c) requires documentation of the day and hour of a prisoner’s transfer in the prisoner file system. In addition, prisoners are to be afforded the right and means to immediately notify their family or any other person designated. The experts stressed the importance of notification of the prisoner’s legal representative of a transfer, invoking the term ‘any other person designated’ in Rule 68. This is supported by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights who have maintained that prisoners have the right to immediately communicate with their family or third parties when he/she is going to be transferred to another prison.195 House of Lords, R. v Secretary of State for the Home Department Ex p. Daly, 23 May 2001. 191  UN General Assembly, 68th Session, Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment: Note by the Secretary-General, 9 August 2013, A/68/295, para. 31. 192  This is made explicit in the European Prison Rules 2006 (Rule 32.3). Paragraph 1 of this Rule refers to prisoners being moved ‘to or from a prison, or to other places such as court or hospital’. 193  Principles and Best Practices on the Protection of Persons Deprived of Liberty in the Americas, principle IX, 4. See also SPT, Report on the visit of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to Argentina, 27 November 2013, CAT/OP/ARG/1, para. 37. 194  IACHR Report on Persons Deprived of Liberty, para. 498 and 499. 195  Penal Reform International and the Essex Human Rights Centre | 55