Bangkok Rules
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The Bangkok Rules, or formally, "The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders", is a set of 70 rules focused on the treatment of female offenders and prisoners adopted by the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
on 22 December 2010. The Bangkok Rules, or the "70 Rules" as it is frequently known, is the first set of rules tailored to the treatment of women prisoners. It supplements existing international standards on the treatment of prisoners, particularly the
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 17 December 2015 after a five-year revision process. They are known as the Mandela Rules in honor of the former Sout ...
, which applies to all prisoners regardless of gender.


Introduction

In 2009, the Thai government, prodded by Princess
Bajrakitiyabha Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, the Princess Rajasarini Siribajra ( th, พัชรกิติยาภา นเรนทิราเทพยวดี, , also known as Princess Pa or Patty, born 7 December 1978) is a Thai diplom ...
, an advocate for female prison reform, submitted a resolution to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, that detailed 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 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. On 22 December 2010, the
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
passed a resolution to adopt the Bangkok Rules, which encouraged 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." 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 Bangkok 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.


Growing female prison population

Estimated to account for between two and ten 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 are 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.


Victims of domestic abuse and alternatives to prison

Female 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 Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
. 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 recidivism and 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.


See also

*
Prison Healthcare Prison healthcare is the medical specialty in which healthcare providers care for people in prisons and jails. Prison healthcare is a relatively new specialty that developed alongside the adaption of prisons into modern disciplinary institutions ...
* Menopause in incarceration *
Incarceration of women This article discusses the incarceration of women in correctional facilities. As of 2013 across the world, 625,000 women and children were being held in penal institutions, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents.< ...


References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Prison reform Imprisonment and detention Prison sexuality Imprisonment and detention of women Women's rights Equality rights