A/C.3/65/L.5
non-discrimination; to take positive measures to address structural causes of
violence against women and to strengthen prevention efforts addressing
discriminatory practices and social norms, including with regard to women in
need of special attention, such as women in institutions or in detention; and to
provide training and capacity-building on gender equality and women’s rights
for law enforcement personnel and the judiciary. The resolution is an
acknowledgement of the fact that violence against women has specific
implications for women’s contact with the criminal justice system, as well as
their right to be free of victimization while imprisoned. Physical and
psychological safety is critical to ensuring human rights and improving
outcomes for women offenders, of which the present rules take account.
10. Finally, in the Bangkok Declaration on Synergies and Responses:
Strategic Alliances in Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, i adopted by the
Eleventh United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
on 25 April 2005, Member States declared that they were committed to the
development and maintenance of fair and efficient criminal justice institutions,
including the humane treatment of all those in pretrial and correctional
facilities, in accordance with applicable international standards (para. 8); and
they recommended that the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice should give consideration to reviewing the adequacy of standards and
norms in relation to prison management and prisoners (para. 30).
11. As with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, in
view of the great variety of legal, social, economic and geographical
conditions worldwide, it is evident that not all of the following rules can be
equally applied in all places and at all times. They should, however, serve to
stimulate a constant endeavour to overcome practical difficulties in how they
are applied, in the knowledge that they represent, as a whole, the global
aspirations considered by the United Nations as leading to the common goal of
improving outcomes for women prisoners, their children and their
communities.
12. Some of these rules address issues applicable to both men and women
prisoners, including those relating to parental responsibilities, some medical
services, searching procedures and the like, although the rules are mainly
concerned with the needs of women and their children. However, as the focus
includes the children of imprisoned mothers, there is a need to recognize the
central role of both parents in the lives of children. Accordingly, some of these
rules would apply equally to male prisoners and offenders who are fathers.
Introduction
13. The following rules do not in any way replace the Standard Minimum
Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and the Tokyo Rules. Therefore, all
provisions contained in those two sets of rules continue to apply to all
prisoners and offenders without discrimination.
14. Section I of the present rules, covering the general management of
institutions, is applicable to all categories of women deprived of their liberty,
including criminal or civil, untried or convicted women prisoners, as well as
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Resolution 60/177, annex.
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