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The UN Body of Principles for the Protection of Detained or Imprisoned Persons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Tullio Treves
Tullio Treves*
Affiliation:
University of Milan
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Extract

On December 9, 1988, the United Nations General Assembly adopted, without a vote, a “Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment.” The preparation of this text was started in 1976 within the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights. On the basis of a project prepared by Mr. Erik Nettel of Austria, the Sub-Commission approved a Draft Body of Principles in 1978. After being submitted to the General Assembly’s Third Committee, it was referred to a working group, which considered it in 1980 but could not complete its task. The item was then moved to the Sixth Committee, which entrusted it to an open-ended working group. This working group met during every session of the General Assembly from 1981 until 1988, and slowly progressed toward the completion of its task.

Type
Current Developments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 84 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 578 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1990

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Footnotes

*

The author is currently on leave and serves as a Legal Adviser to the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations. The views expressed here are his own and do not represent the official position of the Italian Government.

References

1 GA Res. A/43/173 (Dec. 9, 1988).

2 The early history of the Body of Principles is summarized in UN Doc. A/34/146 (1979).

3 For the text, see UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/395 (1977).

4 See Annex to UN Doc. A/34/146, supra note 2.

5 For the report of the Third Committee’s working group, chaired by Mr. Nordenfelt of Sweden, see UN Doc. A/C.3/35/14 (1980).

6 The reports of the working group are rather detailed documents that summarize the discussions and publish the text of the Body of Principles at each stage of its elaboration. See for each year between 1981 and 1988, respectively, UN Docs. A/C. 6 / 36 /L. 16 (1981); A/C.6/37/L.16 (1982); A/C.6/38/L.8 (1983); A/C.6/39/L.10 (1984) [hereinafter 1984 Report]; A/C.6/40/L.18 (1985) [hereinafter 1985 Report]; A/C.6/41/L.19 (1986) [hereinafter 1986 Report]; A/C.6/42/L.12 (1987) [hereinafter 1987 Report]; and A/C.6/43/L.9 [hereinafter 1988 Report]. The working group was chaired from 1981 to 1983 by Mr. Luigi Ferrari Bravo of Italy, and thereafter by the present writer, in his capacity as the Representative of Italy to the Sixth Committee.

7 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, opened for signature Dec. 10, 1984, GA Res. 39/46 (Dec. 10, 1984), draft reprinted in 23 ILM 1027 (1984), substantive changes noted in 24 ILM 535 (1985).

8 “Disappearances” have not ended altogether in Latin America, as emerges from the Judgment of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights of July 29, 1988, in the Velasquez Rodriguez case, ser. C: Judgments and Opinions, No. 4, reprinted in 28 ILM 291 (1989).

9 The Sub–Commission considered the Draft Body of Principles in 1987 and 1988. In its Decision 1987/107 the Sub–Commission, on the basis of work done by concerned nongovernmental organizations, raised three questions for the working group, which considered them in 1987. See 1987 Report, supra note 6, paras. 65–73. The Sub-Commission addressed another series of questions to the working group in its Decision 1988/107. The working group considered some of them in its final session. See 1988 Report, supra note 6, para. 4.

10 1986 Report, supra note 6, paras. 61–69. See also, for the further development of the discussion, 1987 Report, supra note 6, paras. 82–98.

11 1987 Report, supra note 6, para. 91. See also id., paras. 71 and 92–98.

12 Velásquez Rodríguez case, supra note 8, para. 170. See also Article 10 of the Draft Articles on State Responsibility adopted by the International Law Commission on first reading, [1980] 2 Y.B. Int’l L. Comm’n, pt. 2 at 30–34, UN Doc. A/CN.4/SER.A/1980/Add.1.

13 Convention against Torture, supra note 7, Art. 14. See also N. Rodley, The Treatment of Prisoners Under International Law 91–95 (1987).

14 See 1988 Report, supra note 6, paras. 8 and 9.

15 Adopted by the First UN Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Aug. 30, 1955, approved by ESC Res. 663C (XXIV) (July 31, 1957), and amended, by adding new Rule 95, by ESC Res. 2076 (LXII) (May 13, 1977), reprinted in N. Rodley, supra note 13, at 327–41.

16 1984 Report, supra note 6, para. 35.

17 Id., para. 33.

18 1988 Report, supra note 6, para. 24.

19 See the summaries of the relevant debates in the 1984 Report, paras. 40–47, and the 1986 Report, para. 9, both supra note 6.

20 See 1984 Report, paras. 53–57, and 1986 Report, paras. 10–13.

21 GA Res. 43/173, supra note 1, Principle 36.

22 Id., Principle 37.

23 Id., Principles 38 and 39.

24 Principle 28, in Annex to UN Doc. A/34/146, supra note 2.

25 Dec. 16, 1966, 999 UNTS 171.

26 1986 Report, supra note 6, para. 38.

27 1987 Report, supra note 6, para. 77.

28 For the discussion summarized in the text, see 1985 Report, para. 81; 1987 Report, paras. 74–81; and 1988 Report, para. 13; all supra note 6.

29 See text at note 13 supra.