Human rights implications of overincarceration and overcrowding

Published:

10 August 2015

Issued by:

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Presented:

At the 30^th session of the HRC

Link:

A/HRC/30/19

Background

The Human Rights Council, in its resolution 24/12, encouraged States to address overcrowding in detention facilities by taking effective measures, including through enhancing the use of alternatives to pretrial detention and custodial sentences, access to legal aid, and the efficiency as well as the capacity of the criminal justice system and its facilities.

Furthermore, it requested the High Commissioner to submit to the Human Rights Council, at its thirtieth session, an analytical report on the human rights implications of over-incarceration and overcrowding, drawing on the experience of United Nations and regional human rights mechanisms, seeking the views of States, including on their practice regarding alternatives to detention, and other relevant stakeholders.

Summary

The phenomena of overcrowding and overincarceration are inherently intertwined. The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment stated that “[t]he negative impact of the overuse of incarceration on human rights is manifold. The overuse of imprisonment constitutes one of the major underlying causes of overcrowding, which results in conditions that amount to ill-treatment or even torture”.

Furthermore, numerous United Nations bodies and mechanisms, including the Security Council, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and regional human rights bodies have all expressed serious concerns about overcrowding in places of deprivation of liberty and its negative impact on the human rights of detainees.

The problem of overcrowding also extends to such settings, including psychiatric hospitals, various centres for holding irregular migrants and asylum seekers, including offshore centres for processing asylum claims, and temporary airport holding facilities. This report examines conditions in these settings and provides recommendations to improve them.