dissertation on human rights of prisoners

Prisoners’ Rights

• First Online: 01 January 2023

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• Cormac Behan 3 &
• Abigail Stark 4  

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This chapter will explore: the history of punishment and loss of rights; international guidance and domestic legislation on prisoners’ rights; the Prison Rules 1999 and prisoners’ rights; and Civil rights of prisoners, focusing on one of the most contentious of these rights, enfranchisement.

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School of Social Sciences, Law, and Education, Technological University Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

Cormac Behan

School of Justice, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK

Abigail Stark

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Behan, C., Stark, A. (2023). Prisoners’ Rights. In: Prisons and Imprisonment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09301-2_9

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Rights of Women Prisoners in India

11 Pages Posted: 1 Jul 2020

Pamini Kasera

Galgotias University - School of Law, Students

Date Written: June 7, 2020

Indian society gives a respectable status to the women. She plays a vital role in the society. The important role she plays is in the capacity of the mother. The Constitution of India gives the status of equality to the women in India in every aspect of life. It also imposes an obligation on the State to protect the rights of the women and to fulfill the requirements of international conventions regarding the rights of the women. But the reality is women in prisons are facing many problems. Even her basic human rights are being ignored despite many directions from the Supreme Court, High Court, and by recommendations of different Committees. It creates difficulties to them in the prison which requires special attention and a need to be removed. Women prisoners in India jails are less in number than the male prisoners. It may be a cause of overlooking the rights of women prisoners. The main purpose of this research paper is to highlight the problems of the women prisoners, violation of the human rights of the women prisoners, and to suggest the necessary changes that should be implemented despite various provisions regarding women prisoners' rights.

Keywords: Prisons, Constitutional Rights, Human Rights, Sexual Harassment, Custodial Torture, and women prisoners.

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Pamini Kasera (Contact Author)

Galgotias university - school of law, students ( email ).

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Prison Human Rights and Gender

Course Description

China accused of erasing religion, culture from Uighur village names

Rights groups’ analysis of official data from 2009-2023 shows some 630 villages in Xinjiang had their names changed in this way.

China has “systematically” changed the names of hundreds of villages with religious, historical, or cultural meaning for Uighurs to names that resonate with the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

The rights group, working in partnership with Norwegian advocacy organisation Uyghur Hjelp, said it identified 630 villages in the far western region of Xinjiang whose names had been changed in this way by scraping data from 2009 to 2023 on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The most common replacements were Happiness, Unity, and Harmony.

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China targets friendly media, diplomats to ‘tell story of xinjiang’, ‘cruel tragedy’: uighur scholar sentenced to life in prison in china, xi jinping calls for protection of ‘hard-won stability’ in xinjiang visit, us blacklists two chinese firms over uighur forced labour accusations.

“The Chinese authorities have been changing hundreds of village names in Xinjiang from those rich in meaning for Uyghurs to those that reflect government propaganda,” Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement accompanying the report on Wednesday. “These name changes appear part of Chinese government efforts to erase the cultural and religious expressions of Uyghurs.”

China’s policies in Xinjiang drew international attention in 2018 when the United Nations said that at least one million mostly Muslim Uighurs and other Turkic minorities were being held in a network of re-education centres. Beijing said the camps were vocational training centres teaching Mandarin and other skills necessary to tackle “extremism” and prevent “ terrorism “.

Leaks of official government documents , investigations by human rights groups and academics, as well as testimony from Uighurs themselves revealed Uighurs had also been targeted in other alleged abuses from forced sterilisation to family separation and targeting of religious beliefs and traditions.

The latest Human Rights Watch report said most of the village name changes took place between 2017 and 2019 – the height of the crackdown – and ensured references to Uighur history, including the names of its kingdoms, republics and local leaders before the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, were removed. Village names were also changed if they involved terms that suggested Uighur cultural practices, such as mazar (shrine), and dutar (a two-stringed lute).

Among the examples in the report was Qutpidin Mazar village in Kashgar, which was originally named after a shrine of the 13th-century Persian polymath and poet, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, but became known as Rose Flower village in 2018. Meanwhile, Dutar village in Karakax County was renamed Red Flag village in 2022.

Uyghur Hjelp interviewed 11 Uighurs who lived in villages whose names had been changed, and found that the experience had had a deep effect on them. One villager told the group she faced difficulties going home after she was released from a re-education camp because the village name she knew was no longer included in the ticketing system. Another villager told Uyghur Hjelp that he had written a poem and commissioned a song as a memorial to the now lost locations where he had once lived.

The UN’s then human rights chief Michelle Bachelet requested access to Xinjiang when details of the re-education camps first emerged.

She was finally allowed to visit in 2022 and concluded that “serious human rights violations” had been committed and that the scale of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim groups … “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity “.

Abduweli Ayup, founder of Uyghur Hjelp, urged international governments to do more to press China over the situation in Xinjiang, where he said hundreds of thousands of Uighur people remained “wrongfully imprisoned”.

“Concerned governments and the UN human rights office should intensify their efforts to hold the Chinese government accountable for their abuses in the Uyghur region,” he said in the statement.

Rights of Prisoners from Human Rights Perspectives: a Select Study of Women Prisoners in India

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Gaza: Hamas, Israel committed war crimes, claims independent rights probe

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Palestinian armed groups and Israeli authorities have both committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the attack on 7 October and the subsequent military operations, according to a new report by a UN independent human rights body.

This was among the conclusions listed in the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel , released on Wednesday.

“Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power,” the Commission said, stressing the impact on women and children.

Clear turning point

The brutal attack of 7 October by Hamas on communities in southern Israel marked a “clear turning point” for both Israelis and Palestinians and presents a “watershed moment” that can change the direction of the conflict, with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation, the Commission said.

For Israelis, the attack was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere.

For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza have been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948, causing immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.

Stop recurring cycles of violence

The Commission emphasized that both the attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza should not be seen in isolation.

“The only way to stop the recurring cycles of violence, including aggression and retribution by both sides, is to ensure strict adherence to international law,” it stressed.

“That includes ending the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory; discrimination, oppression and the denial of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, and guaranteeing peace and security for Jews and Palestinians.”

Deliberate targeting by Hamas

The Commission further noted that in relation to the attack of 7 October in Israel, members of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, as well as Palestinian civilians who were directly participating in the hostilities, deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based against civilians, including Israeli citizens and foreign nationals.

Such acts were also committed against members of the Israeli Security Forces (ISF), including soldiers considered hors de combat – such as injured soldiers.

“These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” it said.

The Commission also identified patterns indicative of sexual violence in several locations and concluded that Israeli women were disproportionally subjected to these crimes.

Failure to protect civilians

It also noted that Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”, including failing to swiftly deploy sufficient security forces to protect civilians and evacuate them from civilian locations on 7 October.

In several locations, ISF applied the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ and killed at least 14 Israeli civilians. That Directive is reportedly a procedure to prevent capture of ISF members by enemy forces and was alleged to have been directed against Israeli civilians on 7 October.

“Israeli authorities also failed to ensure that forensic evidence was systematically collected by concerned authorities and first responders, particularly in relation to allegations of sexual violence, undermining the possibility of future judicial proceedings, accountability and justice,” the Commission added.

Violations by Israeli military

The independent Commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council , also concluded that, in relation to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.

The Commission further concluded that the immense numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects and vital civilian infrastructure were the “inevitable results of Israel’s chosen strategy for the use of force” during these hostilities, undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions, and thus unlawful.

“ISF’s intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population, particularly affecting women and children,” the Commission said, adding that this was confirmed by the substantial and increasing numbers of casualties, over weeks and months, with “no change in Israeli policies or military strategies”.

Recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Commission report called on the Government of Israel to immediately end attacks resulting in the killing and maiming of civilians in Gaza, end the siege on Gaza, implement a ceasefire, ensure that those whose property has been unlawfully destroyed receive reparations, and ensure that necessities crucial for the health and well-being of the civilian population immediately reach those in need.

It also called on the Government of the State of Palestine and the de-facto authorities in Gaza to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in the enclave; ensure their protection, including from sexual and gender-based violence; report on their state of health and wellbeing; allow visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contact with families and medical attention, and ensure their treatment in compliance with international humanitarian and human rights laws.

“Stop all indiscriminate firing of rockets, mortars and other munitions towards civilian populations,” it added.

Israel rejects findings

Upon publication of the report, Israel rejected the findings of the independent Commission.

In a press release, the country’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva reiterated accusations of “systematic anti-Israeli discrimination”, political bias and of drawing a “false equivalence” between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.

About the Commission of Inquiry

The Commission of Inquiry was established by the UN Human Rights Council to, among other points, investigate, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and abuses of international human rights law leading up and since 13 April 2021.

Its report will be presented to the Human Rights Council’s 56th session on 19 June 2024 in Geneva. The report is accompanied by two documents providing findings on the 7 October attack in Israel , and on Israel’s military operations and attacks in Gaza until the end of 2023 .

Its members are not UN staff and do not draw a salary.

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Palestinian girl with burns from Israeli shelling hopes for treatment

The disfiguring facial burns of 10-year-old Hanan Akel show how Israel's military campaign in Gaza is not only causing thousands of deaths but terrible injuries afflicting both old and young.