Prisoners and Detainees

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Vélez Loor v. Panamá

This case involves a request for provisional measures with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“Court”), filed by Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the representatives of Jesús Tranquilino Vélez Loor, pursuant to Articles 63(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights and 27(3) of the Court’s Rules of Procedure.

Dudley Lee v. Minister for Correctional Services, [2012] ZACC 30

Applicant, Dudley Lee, contracted tuberculosis (TB) while incarcerated in a detention facility under the supervision of the Minister for Correctional Services. Mr. Lee brought a case against the minister in the Western Cape High Court, Cape Town, which found the minister liable for damages suffered by Mr. Lee.

Egypt’s economic exploitation of prisoners

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) published a report addressing the deepening marketization of prison life. The report, “...

Kituo cha Sheria collaborates to implement an Access to Justice Day in Kenya

On 29 June 2017, Kituo cha Sheria collaborated with the Kisumu Maximum Prison - Kodiaga Prison Justice Center in Kenya to commemorate the Access to Justice...

Individual organisation Alternative Report

The Justice and Peace Commission of Bolivia / Chile of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd submitted the Individual organisation Alternative Report to the Government of Chile in 2012. Prison conditions for women are primarily addressed in this...

Torture and illegal detention of law student reaffirms need for anti-torture law in India

On 9 June 2017, a law student, Stalin, was detained in India for 18 hours under suspicion of being part of a smuggling network. According to the Asian Human Rights Commission...

Pakistan: release Saeed Baloch, human rights defender

On 21 January, ESCR-Net sent a letter to the government of Pakistan to express concern about the recent arrest of Saeed Baloch, human rights defender,...

Attorney General and Others v. Tapela and Others, Court of Appeal Civil Case No. CACGB-096-14; Attorney General and Others v. Mwale, Court of Appeal Civil Case No. CACGB-076-15

In 2004 Botswana’s Secretary of Health circulated an internal directive to public medical facilities informing them of a Presidential Directive authorizing “provision of free treatment to non-citizen prisoners suffering from ailments other than AIDS.” HIV-positive Zimbabwean prisoners filed lawsuits challenging this directive after being denied free Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ARV).

Rudul Sah v. State of Bihar, (1983) 4 SCC 141

Rudul Sah was arrested in 1953 on charges of murdering his wife. He was acquitted by an Additional Sessions Judge, in 1968, who directed his release from jail, pending further orders. Rudul Sah languished in jail for 14 years after his acquittal, until his plight was highlighted in the media in 1982 and led to the filing of the PIL on his behalf.

Brown v. Plata 131 S. Ct. 1910 (2011)

The case was a consolidation of two class actions brought under the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLRA), which allows prisoners to sue for violations of constitutional rights. California's prisons were designed to hold about 80,000 prisoners, but at the time of filing, the system held about 156,000. In both class actions, overcrowding was found to constitute an 8th Amendment violation because of a serious lack of access to basic medical care, with one case dealing specifically with prisoners with serious mental illness.