Written by Maya Kelly, a Strategic Communications Consultant and Social Media Coordinator for the UN Department of Peace Operations. She has a background in media, communications, technoculture, and education policy
Human rights belong to everyone – including prisoners.
Nelson Mandela once said, “A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but rather its lowest ones.” Imprisoned for 27 years under apartheid, the late president of South Africa saw firsthand the injustices faced behind bars. He spent his life advocating for the fair and human treatment of all people, including prisoners.
His fight continues today. Around the world, prisons hold individuals convicted of violent or non-violent offences, political prisoners, juveniles, and pre-trial detainees held for months or years without any conviction – and who accounted for nearly a third of the world’s 11.5 million prison population as of 2022.
In many places, these prisoners’ rights are still not upheld. Many are subjected to violence. Many are denied humane treatment, clean water, adequate food, proper sanitation, healthcare, and legal protections. Overincarceration, overcrowding, underfunding, poor conditions and the serious neglect of prison services threaten the lives of prisoners, the safety of communities, and the global community’s efforts to advance human rights, sustainable development, and peace.
The Nelson Mandela Rules, adopted by the UN General Assembly 10 years ago, seek to change this by establishing minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners. In the countries where we operate, UN peacekeeping helps host governments put these rules into practice in countries like South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Kosovo*. Our efforts protect the rights of detainees, improve the safety and security of communities, and help advance sustainable peace in regions affected by conflict.
What are the Nelson Mandela Rules?
The UN first adopted rules for the treatment of prisoners in 1955. They were not updated again until 2015, when after five years of revisions, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted the revised United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners – known today as the Nelson Mandela Rules.
The new resolution was named to honour the legacy of Mandela’s lifelong struggle for global human rights, equality, democracy, and the promotion of a culture of peace.
The Nelson Mandela Rules are the universally recognized blueprint for effective and humane prison management in the 21st century.
While there are 122 rules in total, they are guided by a set of key principles, which seek to create prison systems that ensure humane treatment for prisoners and help prevent repeat offences:
- Humane treatment: Every prisoner is a human being whose rights and dignity must be respected. This includes protection from torture and from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and the right to food, water, and medical attention.
- Non-discrimination: The rules should be applied equally and without discrimination based on race, gender, language, religion, sexuality or another other status.
- Normalisation: Life in prison should be as similar as possible to life in the wider community, with access to resources and regular family contact, to support reintegration and deter repeat offences.
- Safety and security: Prisons should provide a safe and secure environment for prisoners, prison staff, service providers and visitors, including protecting prisoners from violence.
- Tailored rehabilitation: Rehabilitation opportunities, including education and vocational training, should meet prisoners’ individual needs to prepare them to live a law-abiding and self-supporting life upon release. Rehabilitation reduces the likelihood of repeat offences upon prisoners’ release.
Ensuring prisons meet these standards protects the prisoners and personnel inside and improves the safety of surrounding communities.
Why are the Mandela Rules Important?
When the Nelson Mandela Rules are applied, we’re all better off: the rules improve both prisoner and community safety and security.
Humane, rehabilitative prisons lower reoffending rates upon release, improving public safety. Overcrowding and poor sanitation in prisons accelerates the spread of disease, threatening the health of inmates and the wider community. Improving prison health protects public health. Incarceration disrupts families and communities for generations, while prison alternatives and maintained family contact during incarceration leads to stronger social and community cohesion. Incarceration is not only expensive for governments but has long lasting economic costs for families and communities who lose economic potential.
While the Mandela Rules establish the minimum standards in countries where United Nations peace operations are present, chronic underfunding, overcrowding, and outdated infrastructure severely limit governments’ abilities to meet even the most basic standards of detention. If left unchecked, prisons become breeding grounds for communicable disease, violence, and radicalization with social, economic and political costs that are felt well beyond the prison walls. We, therefore, work together with national authorities and partners to implement and uphold the Mandela Rules in prisons in some of the world’s toughest conflict environments.
How UN Peacekeeping helps countries put the Mandela Rules into practice
UN Peacekeeping deploys Justice and Corrections experts to improve how prisons are run, support programs that help prisoners reintegrate into society, and train national prison staff to strengthen justice for prisoners and wider community members.
We support host governments implement the Nelson Mandela Rules, building safer, fairer prisons that respect human rights, reduce the risk of violence and radicalization, and strengthen public trust in justice institutions. These are key foundations for building lasting peace, security, and stability in conflict and post-conflict settings.
In prisons in South Sudan, climate shocks, regional conflict, stalled imports and overcrowding in prisons mean that prisoners do not have enough to eat. The peacekeeping mission UNMISS is working with the Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) to train inmates in agriculture and let them grow food on “prison farms” to supply the prisons. The results have been transformative: food insecurity has been reduced, and prisoners have gained vocational skills that give them hope for their futures. “This farm helps us produce food, gives us the physical exercise we need, but above all, gives us hope for rebuilding our lives once we finish our sentences,” says Jakor Kuron, an inmate.
In the Central African Republic, the peacekeeping mission MINUSCA is providing training to prison officers on how to effectively respond to riots, escape attempts, or attacks, strengthening the safety and security of prisoners, staff and surrounding communities. Beyond crisis response, they are also being trained in important topics like human rights and the treatment of juveniles and women. Together with the national authorities, MINUSCA is promoting a professional, rights-based approach to prison management that advances long-term peace.
A commitment to dignity, even in detention
Protecting the rights of prisoners is essential to upholding human rights and building more peaceful societies.
As we mark 10 years of the Nelson Mandela Rules, UN Peacekeeping continues to help countries put these standards into action, enhancing the safety and security of prisoners and communities alike in countries affected by conflict.
*All references to “Kosovo” in this article are made in the context of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 1999