The “Mandela Rules” and Solitary Confinement: Overcoming Obstacles in the International Human Rights Law/Penology Nexus

• In Event: Human Rights Violations in the International Context

Abstract

In spite of trenchant criticism of solitary confinement practices in recent decades, the adoption of an international norm of prohibition was slow to develop. The affirmation in the recently-approved revision of the UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (now named the Nelson Mandela Rules) of the 15-day limit laid down earlier by the Special Rapporteur on torture may surely be considered a turning point. The paper will consider the nature of the obstacles to such norm-making, including the following:
A. Problems of definition – particularly acute in the case of solitary confinement;
B. The absence of a Convention on prisoners’ rights or prison conditions, and the reliance on diffuse secondary sources;
C. The quasi-cyclical development of penological ideology and policies over time;
D. The complex relationship between human rights’ norms and penological standards as illustrated by the status (legal and professional) of the 1955 Standard Minimum Rules - an essentially penological document, but of interest primarily to human rights lawyers.
Focusing on the recent developments re the norms applicable to solitary confinement may serve as a case study for the consideration of the human rights law/ penology nexus.

Author

• Leslie Sebba, Hebrew University of Jerusalem