Bangkok Rules

The Bangkok Rules, also known as "The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders", is a set of rules focused on the needs of women offenders and prisoners adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2010.^[1] The Bangkok Rules is the first set of rules geared towards the treatment of women prisoners. It supplements the existing international standards on the treatment of prisoners, particularly the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which applies to all prisoners regardless of gender.

Introduction

“In 2009, the Thai government submitted a resolution to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, that recognized the vulnerability of women incarcerated in a system built principally for men. The resolution set in motion a series of meetings that culminated in the UN General Assembly’s December 2010 adoption of the body’s first set of rules focused on women prisoners: Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders, or the Bangkok Rules.”^[2]

On March 16, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to adopt the Bangkok Rules, which encourage member states "to adopt legislation to establish alternatives to imprisonment and to give priority to the financing of such systems, as well as to the development of the mechanisms needed for their implementation."^[3]

Historically, prisons and prison regimes have almost invariably been designed for the majority male prison population – from the architecture of prisons, to security procedures, to healthcare, family contact, work and training. The 70 Rules give guidance to policy makers, legislators, sentencing authorities and prison staff to reduce the imprisonment of women, and to meet the specific needs of women in case of imprisonment. The Rules cover a variety of issues, including admission procedures, healthcare, humane treatment, search procedures, children who accompany their mothers into prison.^[4]

Growing female prison population

Estimated to account for between 2 and 10 percent of national prison populations, women are the fastest growing prisoner demographic. In the US, for example, the number of incarcerated women has grown at roughly twice the rate for men, multiplying by almost a factor of seven in the last three decades. Chinese data is not up to date, but, between 1997 and 2002, the number of women in Chinese prisons increased at an average annual rate of 13 percent.^[5][6]

Victims of Domestic Abuse and Alternatives to Prison

Women offenders are disproportionately likely to have been victims of domestic or sexual abuse. Throughout the criminal justice process, they are at risk of further abuse, violence and humiliation – from police, prison officers and fellow prisoners. For many women, custody means ill-treatment, threats of rape, touching, ‘virginity testing’, being stripped naked, invasive body searches, insults and humiliations of a sexual nature or even rape. There are also cases of women prisoners being forced into a position of providing sex for favours or preferential treatment. Alternatives to imprisonment – such as community service – have been shown to be much more effective in reducing re-offending and in promoting lasting rehabilitation. However, in many countries alternatives to prison fail to take into account the specific requirements of women offenders. Their caretaking responsibilities and their previous history of domestic violence are often overlooked, as are gender differences in drug dependency and therefore drug treatment.^[7]

References