Ms. Verma further mentioned that OHCHR provides advice on legal and policy reform
needed to ensure compliance with international standards and norms relating to
deprivation of liberty including engaging with judges, prosecutors, lawyers and
correction staffs on relevant international standards and norms, often jointly with
other UN agencies such as UN Women and international organisations such as the
International Commission of Jurists. OHCHR often uses prison visits to monitor and to
improve conditions of detention in high profile individual cases as in Colombia, Nepal,
and other countries. This has resulted in some instances an increased visits from the
prison medical team, timely provision of medication to inmates and access to legal
defence.
Besides that, OHCHR has also focused attention on ensuring adequate
accommodation as outlined under the Nelson Mandela Rules through its prison
support program. For example, OHCHR has supported the General Department of
Prisons in Cambodia to improve sanitation, hygiene, and access to portable water. In
2019, the General Department of Prisons, Cambodia produced a final draft of
minimum standard on prison construction based on previous recommendations,
jointly provided by OHCHR, UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and ICRC. The
guidelines reflect the international human rights standards and norms and provide
for the separation of different categories of detainees, including provision for persons
with disabilities and children in prison with their mothers. In Tunisia, OHCHR with the
cooperation with Penal Reform International has engaged with the General
Directorate of Prisons to support developing the national strategy for reducing and
addressing overcrowding in prisons.
Implementing the Nelson Mandela Rules involves providing legal assistance and
advice to states and prisoners alike. In Madagascar for example, advocacy efforts
have resulted in the ratification of the optional protocol to the Convention Against
Torture (CAT) in 2017. This is significant given that the mandate of protocol allows
UN experts to visit prisons and to help improve conditions and preventive treatment
and address underlying challenges. Monitoring the situation of irregular migrants and
detention including unaccompanied and separated minors is a critical focus of the
work of OHCHR for example in Mexico, in relation to safeguards included in the
Nelson Mandela Rules, OHCHR has presented recommendations to the Federal
Congress on legislation to establish a national registry of detention and
comprehensive registration for inmates and detainees on admission in line with the
Nelson Mandela Rules (6-10) which have led to the adoption of a national law on the
registry of detention. OHCHR has also delivered technical advice on the use of pretrial detention, which has contributed to the adoption of a constitutional reform,
enabling a review of the use of pre-trial detention by 2024.
Issues relating to the protection of persons deprived of their liberty have also been
raised and dealt by UN human rights mechanisms such as treaty bodies, special
procedures, and Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which frequently refers to the
Nelson Mandela Rules. Treaty bodies frequently request states to indicate in initial
and periodic reports the extent to which they are applying standards including the
Nelson Mandela Rules and regularly refer to them in their concluding observations
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