Addressing Vulnerabilities
III.
45
Addressing Vulnerabilities
Core to the Body of Principles is the declaration that it is applicable to all persons within
the territory of any given State, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion or religious belief, political or other opinion, national ethnic or social origin,
property, birth or other status. It then declares that measures applied under the law and
designed solely to protect the rights and special status of women, especially pregnant women and
nursing mothers, children and juveniles, aged, sick or handicapped persons shall not be deemed to
be discriminatory. 214 This is in recognition of the vulnerability of certain groups and persons, who
in addition to being held in detention or imprisonment, are also subject to different forms of
discrimination. Due to their vulnerability, standards were passed and agreed upon in the
international level; standards which this study and research used as framework in the assessment
of the conditions of NCRPO lock up cells and person detained therein specifically giving special
attention to: women, children, elderly, persons with disability, and likewise persons with diverse
sexual orientation and gender identity.
A. Women
Women detainees belong to one of the vulnerable groups that have specific needs and
requirements. Under the Standard Minimum Rules, several provisions are in place to protect
women prisoners and women in detention. There is the requirement for the separation of
categories -- that “men and women shall so far as possible be detained in separate institutions; in an
institution which receives both men and women the whole of the premises allocated to women shall be
entirely separate.” 215Other standards include the provision of pre and post natal care and
treatment in institutions, 216 the requirement that arrangements be made whenever practicable for
children to be born in a hospital outside the institution, that in cases where nursing infants are
allowed to remain in the institution with their mothers, provision shall be made for a nursery
staffed by qualified persons. 217
The Standards also provide that in institutions for both men and women, the part set aside
for women shall be under the authority of a responsible woman officer. No male member of the
staff shall enter the part of the institution set aside for women unless accompanied by a woman
officer. It also required that women prisoners shall be attended and supervised only by women
officers. 218 This does not, however, preclude male members of the staff, particularly doctors and
teachers, from carrying out their professional duties in institutions or parts of institutions set aside
for women.
214
Principle 5, Body of Principles
Standard No. 8 (a), Standard Minimum Rules
216
Standard No. 23
217
Standard 23
218
Standard 53.
215