Human Rights in the Administration of Justice

A/RES/73/177No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 74bHuman rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, published in 2019.

What else is in this group?

28 documents · 1972–2024

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2024).

2024A/RES/79/172Human rights in the administration of justiceCompare with earlier document
2023A/RES/77/219Human rights in the administration of justiceCompare with earlier document
2020A/RES/75/185Human rights in the administration of justiceCompare with earlier document
2019A/RES/73/177Human rights in the administration of justiceCompare with earlier document
2017A/RES/71/188Human rights in the administration of justiceCompare with earlier document

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

Grouped automatically by matching titles within the same organ.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 topics

Administration of Justice Human Rights International Humanitarian Law Juvenile Justice Rules and Regulations

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2020.

2020A/75/327Human rights in the administration of justice report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

41 operative paragraphs

Takes note with appreciation of the most recent report of the Secretary-General on human rights in the administration of justice;

Also takes note with appreciation of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on non-discrimination and the protection of persons with increased vulnerability in the administration of justice, in particular in situations of deprivation of liberty and with regard to the causes and effects of overincarceration and overcrowding, as well as previous reports on human rights in the administration of justice submitted to the Human Rights Council;

Reaffirms the importance of the full and effective implementation of all United Nations standards on human rights in the administration of justice, and invites States to assess their national legislation and practice against those standards;

Invites States to make use of technical assistance offered by the relevant United Nations entities and programmes in order to strengthen national capacities and infrastructures in the field of the administration of justice;

Appeals to Governments to include, in their efforts to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development21 and in their national development plans, the effective administration of justice and equal access to justice for all as an integral part of the development process, with a view to promoting and protecting human rights, and to allocate adequate resources for effective, fair, humane and accountable justice systems, including the provision of legal aid services, and invites the international community to respond favourably to requests for financial and technical assistance for the enhancement and strengthening of the administration of justice;

Stresses the special need for national capacity-building in the field of the administration of justice, in particular through reform of the judiciary, the police and the penal system, as well as juvenile justice reform, and through the encouragement of independence, accountability and transparency in the judiciary, in order to establish and maintain stable societies and the rule of law in post-conflict situations, and welcomes the role of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in supporting the establishment and functioning of transitional justice mechanisms in post-conflict situations;

Reaffirms that no one should be unlawfully or arbitrarily deprived of liberty, and notes that any deprivation should observe the principles of necessity and proportionality in this regard;

Calls upon States to apply individual criminal responsibility and to refrain from detaining persons based solely on their family ties with an alleged offender;

Also calls upon States to ensure that anyone who is deprived of liberty through arrest or detention has prompt access to a competent court with the effective power to determine the lawfulness of the detention and to order release if the detention or imprisonment is determined not to be lawful and prompt access to legal counsel, which could include legal aid schemes, in accordance with their international obligations and commitments;

Calls upon all States to consider establishing, maintaining or enhancing independent national 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 liberty, inter alia, in line with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules);12

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 other up-to-date, comprehensive and disaggregated data that allow for the identification and prevention of discrimination in the administration of justice and overincarceration;

Affirms that States must ensure that any measure taken to combat terrorism, including in the administration of justice, complies with their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law;

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

Calls upon States to investigate promptly, effectively and impartially all alleged human rights violations suffered by persons deprived of their liberty, in particular cases involving death, torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, to provide effective remedy to the victims, in accordance with their international obligations and commitments, and to ensure that detention administrations fully cooperate with the investigating authority and preserve all evidence;

Also calls upon States to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities when investigating, prosecuting and punishing persons responsible for human rights violations and abuses committed against them, including by providing effective remedies, taking into consideration, on an equal basis with others, the specific circumstances of the person with disabilities, as well as by implementing systemic changes, legal and policy reforms and capacity-building where needed in order to ensure non-repetition;

Urges States to endeavour to reduce, where appropriate, pretrial detention, which should be a measure of last resort and for as short a period as possible, inter alia, by adopting legislative and administrative measures and policies on its preconditions, limitations, duration and alternatives and by taking measures aimed at the implementation of existing legislation, as well as by ensuring access to justice and legal advice and assistance, which could include legal aid schemes;

Encourages States to address overcrowding in detention facilities by taking effective measures, including through enhancing the availability and use of alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences, bearing in mind the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for Non-custodial Measures (the Tokyo Rules) and the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), access to legal aid, mechanisms for crime prevention, early release and rehabilitation programmes and the efficiency as well as the capacity of the criminal justice system and its facilities, bearing in mind the United Nations Principles and Guidelines on Access to Legal Aid in Criminal Justice Systems;

Urges States to take all necessary measures to prevent and eliminate discrimination in law and in practice against persons who are in vulnerable situations or marginalized in the administration of justice that may also result in their overincarceration and overrepresentation throughout the criminal justice process;

Also urges States to pay special attention to the conditions of detention or imprisonment of persons who are in vulnerable situations or marginalized and to their particular needs;

Continues to encourage States to pay due attention to the Bangkok Rules when developing and implementing relevant legislation, procedures, policies and action plans, and invites relevant special procedure mandate holders, the Office of the High Commissioner, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and all other relevant organizations to take those rules into consideration in their activities;

Encourages States to review penal policies that can contribute to overincarceration and overcrowding, in particular regarding so-called “zero-tolerance policies”, such as the application of mandatory pretrial detention and mandatory minimum sentences especially for minor and/or non-violent crimes;

Recognizes that all children and juveniles alleged as, accused of or recognized as having infringed the law, particularly those who are deprived of their liberty, as well as child victims and witnesses of crimes, should be treated in a manner consistent with their rights, dignity and needs, in accordance with international law, bearing in mind relevant international standards on human rights in the administration of justice, taking into account also the age, gender, social circumstances and development needs of such children, and calls upon States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child7 and States parties to the Optional Protocols to the Convention to abide strictly by their principles and respective provisions;

Reiterates the importance of the United Nations Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence against Children in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and urges States to consider applying them, 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 States to support and to benefit, as appropriate, from the programme proposed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the United Nations Children’s Fund in this regard;

Recalls its resolutions 69/157 of 18 December 2014 and 72/245 of 24 December 2017, in which it invited the Secretary-General to commission an in-depth global study on children deprived of liberty, to be funded through voluntary contributions, and in this regard encourages Member States, United Nations agencies, funds, programmes and offices, as well as other relevant stakeholders, to support the elaboration of the study;

Encourages States that have not yet integrated children’s issues into their overall rule of law efforts to do so and to develop and implement a comprehensive and coordinated juvenile justice policy to prevent and address juvenile delinquency and to address risks and causes for children’s contact with the juvenile and/or criminal justice system, as well as with a view to promoting, inter alia, the use of alternative measures, such as diversion and restorative justice, and complying with the principle that deprivation of liberty of children should be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, as well as to avoid, wherever possible, the use of pretrial detention for children;

Stresses the importance of including reintegration strategies for former child offenders in juvenile justice policies, in particular through the provision of gender-sensitive education and life skills programmes, as well as treatment and services for substance abuse and mental health needs, in line with relevant commitments and obligations under international human rights law, with a view to their assuming a constructive role in society;

Urges States to take all necessary and effective measures, including legal reform where appropriate, to prevent and respond to all forms of violence against children within the justice system, including within the informal justice system, where it exists;

Also urges States to ensure that, under their legislation and practice, neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without the possibility of release nor corporal punishment is imposed for offences committed by persons under 18 years of age, and encourages States to consider repealing all other forms of life imprisonment for offences committed by persons under 18 years of age;

Encourages States not to set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at too low an age level, bearing in mind the emotional, mental and intellectual maturity of the child, and in this respect notes the recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to increase the lower minimum age of criminal responsibility to the age of 12 years as the absolute minimum age, and to continue to increase it to a higher age level;17

Also encourages States to gather relevant information, including through data collection and research, concerning children within their criminal justice systems so as to improve their administration of justice, while being mindful of the children’s right to privacy, with full respect for relevant international human rights instruments, and bearing in mind applicable international standards on human rights in the administration of justice;

Stresses the importance of paying greater attention to the impact on children of imprisonment or other sentences imposed upon their parents, while noting with interest the convening of and reports on all relevant meetings and panel discussions on these issues held by the Human Rights Council;

Calls upon States to take effective and appropriate measures to remove all barriers preventing persons with disabilities from having effective access to justice on an equal basis with others and without discrimination;

Invites States to provide for tailored and interdisciplinary human rights training, including anti-racist, anti-discriminatory, multicultural, disability-inclusive, gender-sensitive and child rights training, to all judges, lawyers, prosecutors, social workers, immigration, correction and police officers and other professionals concerned, including personnel deployed in international field presences;

Also invites States, upon their request, to benefit from technical advice and assistance provided by the relevant United Nations entities and programmes in order to strengthen national capacities and infrastructures in the field of the administration of justice;

Invites the Office of the High Commissioner and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime to reinforce their technical assistance to States, upon request and in accordance with their respective mandates, to strengthen the national capacity-building of States in the field of the administration of justice, in particular in post-conflict situations, and in this context to strengthen cooperation with relevant United Nations entities;

Underlines the importance of rebuilding and strengthening structures for the administration of justice and of respecting the rule of law and human rights, including in post-conflict situations, as a crucial contribution to building peace and justice and ending impunity, and in this respect requests the Secretary-General to further streamline and strengthen system-wide coordination and coherence of programmes and activities of the relevant parts of the United Nations system, including through the Rule of Law Coordination and Resource Group chaired by the Deputy Secretary-General, the Rule of Law Unit in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General and the global focal point arrangement for the police, justice and corrections areas in the rule of law in post-conflict and other crisis situations;

Invites States, in the context of the universal periodic review mechanism and in their reports under international human rights treaties, to consider addressing the promotion and protection of human rights in the administration of justice;

Also invites States, when reviewing progress made in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to consider the possibility of looking into the causes and effects of overincarceration and overcrowding, including, where persons are in vulnerable situations or marginalized, with regard to non-discrimination and persons who are in vulnerable situations or marginalized in the administration of justice;

Invites relevant special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council, as well as relevant treaty bodies, to give special attention to questions relating to the effective protection of human rights in the administration of justice, and to provide, wherever appropriate, specific recommendations in this regard, including proposals for advisory services and technical assistance measures;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session a report on the latest developments, challenges and good practices in human rights in the administration of justice, including on the situation of persons with disabilities in the administration of justice, and on the activities undertaken by the United Nations system as a whole;

Decides to continue its consideration of the question of human rights in the administration of justice at its seventy-fifth session under the item entitled “Promotion and protection of human rights”.

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