Human Rights in the Administration of Justice, Including Juvenile Justice

A/HRC/RES/42/11View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2019.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2013–2019

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2019	A/HRC/RES/42/11	Human rights in the administration of justice, including juvenile justice	2,440	47%Compare
2017	A/HRC/RES/36/16	Human rights in the administration of justice, including juvenile justice	3,113	73%Compare
2015	A/HRC/RES/30/7	Human rights in the administration of justice, including juvenile justice	2,749	47%Compare
2013	A/HRC/RES/24/12	Human rights in the administration of justice, including juvenile justice	2,714	–

What subjects does this mandate have?

11 subjects

Administration of Justice Criminal Justice Death in Custody Detained Persons Human Rights Human Rights Monitoring Juvenile Justice Prisoner Treatment Report Preparation Rights of the Child Torture Prevention

What’s in this document?

25 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on violence, death and serious injury in situations of deprivation of liberty;²

²A/HRC/42/20.

Calls upon States to spare no effort to provide for effective legislative, judicial, social, educative and other relevant mechanisms and procedures, as well as adequate resources, to ensure the full implementation of all United Nations standards on human rights in the administration of justice, in particular the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), and invites them to assess their national legislation and practice in accordance with those standards;

Invites States to take into consideration the issue of human rights in the administration of justice in the context of the universal periodic review;

Also invites States to include in their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and their national development plans the administration of justice as an integral part of the development process;

Stresses that ensuring that any individual arrested or detained is promptly brought before a judge or other independent judicial officer in person, and permitting prompt and regular medical care and legal counsel throughout all stages of detention, as well as visits by family members and independent monitoring mechanisms, are effective measures for the prevention of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as well as other forms of violence leading to death and serious injuries in situations of deprivation of liberty;

Urges all States to consider establishing, maintaining or enhancing independent mechanisms with the mandate to monitor all places of detention, including by making unannounced visits, and to hold private interviews without witnesses with all persons deprived of their liberty;

Calls upon States to maintain or establish independent, effective, accessible, safe, and, if so requested, confidential request and complaint mechanisms for detainees and prisoners that promptly deal with and reply to these and have the capacity to provide remedial action;

Also calls upon States to ensure a proper file and data management system on prisoners that allows the tracking of the number of persons deprived of their liberty, their detention period, offences or grounds for detention, and developments regarding the prison population, and encourages States to collect, compile and analyse other up-to-date, comprehensive and disaggregated data about the circumstances and causes of violence, death and serious injury in situations of deprivation of liberty;

Recalls the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international law, and calls upon States to address and prevent detention conditions of persons deprived of their liberty that amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment;

Calls upon States to investigate promptly, effectively and impartially all alleged human rights violations and abuses suffered by persons deprived of their liberty, in particular cases involving violence, death, serious injury, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to provide effective remedies to victims and to ensure that any custodial death, disappearance or serious injury is reported without delay to a judicial or other competent authority that is independent of the detention administration and that detention administrations cooperate fully with the investigating authority and preserve all evidence;

Also calls upon States to address and prevent violence in situations of deprivation of liberty, including inter-prisoner violence, by taking effective measures, such as reasserting responsible control over prisons and prison populations where prisons are de facto managed by prisoners, keeping the different categories of prisoners separated, taking account of their sex, age, criminal records, the legal reason for their detention and the necessities of their treatment, ensuring good and safe working conditions for staff and avoiding understaffing;

Encourages States to address overcrowding in detention facilities by taking effective measures, including by enhancing the availability and use of alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences, access to legal aid, mechanisms for crime prevention, early release and rehabilitation programmes and the efficiency and capacity of the criminal justice system and its facilities, and to make use in this regard of, inter alia, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Handbook on Strategies to Reduce Overcrowding in Prisons;

Calls upon States to review penal policies, including sentencing policies, practices and guidelines, that can contribute to overincarceration and overcrowding, and to apply the principle of proportionality, in particular regarding so-called “zero-tolerance policies”, such as the application of mandatory pretrial detention and mandatory minimum sentences, including life imprisonment sentences, especially for minor and/or non-violent crimes;

Underscores the particular importance of providing appropriate training in the administration of justice, including for prosecutorial, judicial and prison authorities, with a view to preventing all forms of violence and human rights violations and abuses, raising awareness of and eliminating prejudice and discrimination, ensuring proportionate sentencing and enhancing the implementation of non-custodial measures at the pretrial and post-conviction stages;

Calls upon States to develop and implement clear policies and regulations on the conduct of and use of force and restraint by staff in accordance with international norms and standards, including those aimed at providing maximum protection for women deprived of their liberty from any gender-based physical or verbal violence, abuse and sexual harassment;

Urges States to take all necessary and effective measures to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children within the justice system, and to consider applying the United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,³ as appropriate, in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of laws, policies, programmes, budgets and mechanisms aimed at eliminating violence against children in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, and encourages them to support and to benefit from the programme proposed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Children’s Fund in this regard;

³General Assembly resolution 69/194, annex.

Encourages States not to set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at too low an age, bearing in mind the emotional, mental and intellectual maturity of the child, and in this regard refers to the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to at least 14 years of age;

Urges States to ensure that, under their legislation and practice, neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment is imposed for offences committed by persons under 18 years of age;

Calls upon States to consider establishing or strengthening existing independent, child-friendly and gender-sensitive national monitoring and complaints mechanisms so as to contribute to safeguarding the rights of children deprived of their liberty;

Welcomes the work on the in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty,⁴ and the submission of the report on the global study⁵ to the General Assembly;

⁴See General Assembly resolution 69/157, para. 52 (d).

⁵See A/74/136.

Invites States, upon their request, to benefit from the technical advice and assistance provided by the relevant United Nations agencies and programmes in order to strengthen their national capacities and infrastructures in the field of the administration of justice, including in addressing overcrowding, overincarceration and violence against children in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, and calls upon the High Commissioner to strengthen advisory services and technical assistance in this regard;

Calls upon relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council to pay special attention to questions relating to the effective protection of human rights in the administration of justice, including issues relating to violence, death and serious injury in situations of deprivation of liberty;

Invites States to take into account aspects relating to human rights in the administration of justice at the upcoming Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to be held in Kyoto, Japan, from 20 to 27 April 2020;

Requests the High Commissioner to submit to the Human Rights Council, at its forty-seventh session, an analytical report on human rights in the administration of justice, in particular on current and emerging challenges in the protection of persons deprived of their liberty, including judicial oversight, drawing on the experience of United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms and seeking the views of States, including on their policies and best practices, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders;

Decides to continue its consideration of this issue under the same agenda item, in accordance with its annual programme of work.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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