This Handbook aims to increase awareness of the international standards which exist in the area of pre-trial detention as well as of interpretive material relating to those standards. The publication offers advisory, rather than compulsory guidelines to criminal justice practitioners. The Handbook includes practical steps for the implementation of existing standards on the treatment of offenders, as applied to the situation of pre-trial and administrative detainees. It is intended to assist States in response to resolution 17 on pre-trial detention adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders.