Submission to the Human Rights Council, September 2013: the human rights impact of the overuse of imprisonment

The overuse of imprisonment is a challenge for penal policy, but also has a significant impact on human rights.

This submission to the 24^th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council (September 2013) details the human rights implications of overcrowding – a product of the overuse of imprisonment.

There has to date been little focus on the human rights impact of criminal justice policies, and while the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms have expressed concern over prison overcrowding time and again, no mechanism has yet been established to address its causes.

PRI is co-hosting a side-event, Deadlock: the human rights impact of over-incarceration, in Geneva on Monday 16 September 2013 at 13-15hr (Room XXIV, Palais des Nations) with the aim of contributing to the discussion on preventing human rights violations of persons deprived of their liberty, through a reduction of the use of imprisonment.