Violation of Women’s Rights in Places of Detention

Kanater Women’s Prison, A Case Study

A report by the Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP)

1 August 1998

The Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP) is the first Arab center specialized in the study and monitoring of prisons. The program for the amelioration of prison conditions monitors and documents prison conditions and presents recommendations to the Egyptian government to help it improve the conditions of prison inmates on the one hand, and to urge donor states to allocate part of their aid to help the Egyptian government to develop prisons’ infrastructure on the other.

Data and legal drafting:

Ashraf Mahmoud Mahfouz

Amal Deyab

Lawyers

Lawyers:

Mohammed Zari’

Essam Abdel-Aziz

Atif Hafiz        

Research & Publications Unit:

Samar Abdel-Salam

Administration Unit:

Adel Salah

Hanaa Hashim

Amira Hamdi

            Hamdi Hamdi

            Director

            Mohammed Zari’

Introduction

In the context of the work carried out by the Human Rights Center for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP) for the amelioration of prison conditions, the Center was particularly concerned with the conditions of women in prisons. The present report aims to present a general picture of the conditions of women in prisons. It records the conditions of the Kanater Women’s Prison, the main women’s prison, as a case study.

The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners states the minimum rights that must be provided for women prisoners, particularly those pregnant or with little children, and the children.

The report was produced in many stages. First, a representative from the Center carried out visits to the prison to collect data and information that was added to that available at the Center.

Second, legal material on women’s rights was prepared. Third, to document the report, case studies, including cases of minors and criminal and political prisoners, were presented. Finally came the final drafting of the report, the appendices, and the recommendations and suggestions, which aim at raising the attention of the areas responsible for women’s prisons.

This is the ninth report issued by the HRCAP, which issued previously the following:

  “Involuntary Disappearance in Egyptian Prisons”, August 1997. It documents twelve cases of involuntary     disappearance in Egyptian prisons since the early nineties.

  “A New Bastille in Al-Wadi Al-Gadid Prison”, October 1997. It presented 61 cases of lack of medical care and seven cases of death.

  “Deprivation of Education in Egyptian Prisons”, December 1997.

  “Human Rights Violations in Wadi Al-Natroun Prison”, January 1998.

  “Doctors Indicted”, February 1998.

  “The Effects of Long Term Imprisonment on Egyptian Society - A Field Survey”, April 1998.

  “Ten Lawless Prisons”, June 1998.

  “Detention ... an Endless Punishment”, June 1998.

The Center would like to point out that the violations mentioned in this report are only those which the Center was able to discover in the light of the smoke screen policy adopted by the prison officials and the harassment of lawyers.

The Center issues this report and demands that the gap between the penal laws on prisons applied in Egypt and the Standard Minimum Rules for the Assistance of Prisoners be filled, and that Rules be integrated in domestic laws. It also asks for the implementation of modern penal policies and the rejection of the idea that prisons are places for punishment. The Center considers that punishment is already achieved through the restriction of the freedom of prisoners, therefore prison conditions should not be used as an additional punishment.

Women’s prisons in Egypt are not different from other prisons. Therefore, the HRCAP decided to issue this report on women’s prisons to urge for the implementation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners also in these prisons.

The report will review the situation of women in the mentioned Rules and in the Egyptian legislation, and will review the rights to which women prisoners are entitled, particularly those who are pregnant or mothers of little children.

Chapter two of the report describes Al-Kanater Women’s Prison as a case study, and records major violations of their rights. Chapter three includes a number of cases of women prisoners whose rights were violated. The report ends with a number of documents that support the occurrence of the said violations. Finally, it presents a number of recommendations for the improvement of women’s prisons in Egypt.