Background

Pursuant to resolution 53/27, adopted by the Human Rights Council on 14 July 2023, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is preparing a report on "the situation of human rights of women and girls in criminal justice detention, including information on practices and measures to prevent and address violence against women and girls in the context of criminal justice detention, as well as good practices and challenges relating to rehabilitation and reintegration policies and programmes." The report will be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-ninth session.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

OHCHR would like to invite all United Nations Member States, United Nations entities, regional organizations, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations, women’s and girls’ rights organizations, independent experts of human rights treaty bodies and Human Rights Council special procedures, women and girls with lived experience in criminal justice, and other relevant stakeholders to submit information for the report that address the following key questions and areas of inquiry:

1. Could you share up-to-date disaggregated data based on gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and any other relevant category on the following:
   a)Number of sentenced and unsentenced prisoners in your country;
   b)Offences or reasons for detention;
   c)Number of detention facilities in your country, specifying how many are designated for women and whether these facilities are separate from those for men or are annexes of male prisons;
   d)Gender-based violence against women and girls in criminal justice detention, including the number of cases reported to independent oversight mechanisms and/or number of cases reported/prosecuted/adjudicated and types of violence?
2. What good practices, effective strategies, and measures have been adopted for preventing violence against women and girls in criminal justice detention?
3. Please provide examples of good practices for non-custodial measures for women in your country, including at the pre-trial, sentencing, and post-sentencing stages.
4. What are the measures in place, including institutions, mechanisms, policies, and good practices for monitoring and responding to cases of gender-based violence against women in detention? For example:
   ✓Does your national legal and policy framework establish a specialised independent body to proactively monitor places of detention and to attend to individual complaints of gender-based violence against women?
   ✓Is there a national plan, policy, or strategy to address gender-based violence against women in criminal justice detention that is overseen by a national institution?
   ✓To what extent do capacity building programmes for prison staff and policies and regulations on the conduct of prison staff address gender-based violence in criminal justice detention?
5. What avenues do women have to access justice, remedies, and reparations when they face gender-based violence in criminal justice detention?
6. What rehabilitation and social reintegration programmes and services are available for women affected by gender-based violence against women in criminal justice detention in your country, both in prison and after release? How do these activities and services promote women's physical and psychological well-being while facilitating their reintegration into society, including the labour market?
7. Could you share the name and email of a focal point with whom OHCHR could be in touch?

How inputs will be used?

Please include in your submission the name of the organization and individual making the written submission. Submissions will be made publicly available, in full and as received, on the OHCHR website, unless otherwise requested. Should you not wish to have your response published, please clearly indicate this in your e-mail and submission.