The global female prison population has grown by a staggering 53% over the past decade. While women remain a small proportion of the overall detention population, they are among the most vulnerable. The little information we have about women in South African prisons reports intolerable overcrowding, unhygienic sleeping conditions, challenges with accessing essential health and mental health care services, even including ‘medical neglect’. This comes in addition to pervasive issues with deteriorating infrastructure, and the impact of imprisoning women on the back of the already dire socio-economic conditions and social conditions of the families that women support, and leave behind, when imprisoned.
With the support of the EU, the SAHRC and APT are implementing a project to explore mechanisms for the protection of women in the criminal justice system. As a first step, this project assessed the implementation of the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders “Bangkok Rules” in South Africa and the SADC region. The Bangkok Rules are used as a benchmark for monitoring the treatment of women prisoners by National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs – a monitoring mandate held by the SAHRC) that play an important role in influencing practices, attitudes and proposing legal and policy reforms.

The Bangkok Rules are significant as they provide guidelines on the admission and conditions of detention, including the unique safety and security, rehabilitation, and health and mental health concerns of women. They also promote the proper documentation and adequate research on incarcerated women. The potential domestication of the Bangkok Rules into formative guidelines that are appropriate for the South African context is long overdue.
To this end, the workshop will bring together South African and European partners to exchange ideas on the opportunities and challenges in the implementation of the Bangkok Rules and how these could be domesticated in Southern Africa.
     
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For further information contact Gushwell Brooks, C: +27 82 645 8573/ E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.