Thailand Law Journal 2012 Fall Issue 1 Volume 15

Thailand: The United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (Bangkok Rules)

By Patthara Limsira**

1. Introduction

Prisoners are forgotten people in the world. Especially, female inmates are much more alienated. Women would face common problems in prisons which have been designed primarily by and for men.¹ They have not been acknowledged enough to meet their basic needs in modem criminal justice system due to their specific mental and physical circumstances.² Even now, the legal instruments are insufficient for them.³ These difficulties are much severer to alien women in prison under a foreign criminal justice system.⁴

As a result, Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha has a keen interest in helping and supporting disadvantaged female inmates worldwide to receive proper treatment during their imprisonment term under the criminal justice system. Therefore, the Enhancing Lives of Female Inmates ("ELFI")⁵ was began with the Ministry of Justice of Thailand assigned the Office of Justice Affairs as an implementing agency for the ELFI Project in 2009. The Bangkok Rules were drafted based on resulting from the ELFI project and developed with an aim to be supplement of the 1955 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners ("SMR") and do not replace other existing standards.⁶ Under the direction of Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha, Thailand has continuously promoted the draft Bangkok Rules among United Nations Member States through various international human rights and criminal justice system.

Until December 21, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly ("UNGA") took a historical move in response to the needs and characteristics of female inmates for higher protections by adopting its Resolution 65/229 approved the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules) ⁷ which has been manifested as one of the successful outcomes of the 65th session.

Furthermore, it also serves to honour Her Royal Highness Princess Bajarakitiyabha whose perseverance and strong support has culminated in the successful adoption of the Bangkok Rules by the United Nations. Hence, the Bangkok Rules are the first
dynamic United Nations guidelines governing the treatment of female inmates, which States can refer to for an improvement of laws and regulations pertaining to female inmates in correctional facilities. Hence, the Bangkok Rules telos will bring the higher
protection of human rights to all female inmates and their babies in the criminal justice system in international level.

2. Contents of the Bangkok Rules

There are 70 Rules in the Bangkok Rules in response to the specific female needs in the criminal justice system. This also opens to the society to contribute in resolving the ongoing problem. The Bangkok Rules divides into four parts as follow:

Part 1: Rules of General Application (Rules 1-39) focus on prison management in general, inter alia, register, allocation personal hygiene, health-care services, safety and security, contract with the outside world, institutional personnel and their training,
juvenile female prisoners. The part is applicable in both civil and criminal cases including security measures or corrective measures.
Part 2: Rules Applicable to Special Categories (Rules 40-56) divide into two sub parts. Sub-part A focuses on prisoners under sentence, inter alia, classification and individualization, prison regime, social relations and aftercare, pregnant women,
breastfeeding mothers, and mothers with children in prison, foreign nationals, minorities and indigenous people. Sub-part B focuses on prisoners under arrest and awaiting trial. There is nothing to prohibit the application of the provision in sub-part A
to sub-part B.
Part 3: Non-Custodial Sanctions and Measures (Rules 57-66) aim to apply for female offenders who commit minor offences and are not physically able to serve the sentence, inter alia, pregnant women and women with dependent children, juvenile female offenders, and foreign nationals. This rule is applicable from the investigation until postsentencing dispositions.
Part 4: Research, Planning, Evaluation and Public Awareness Raising (Rules 67-70) respond the need of research into the factor of female offences and raising public awareness, information sharing and training which includes rehabilitation mechanisms for female inmates when they return to the society.

3. Conclusion

It has been more than 50 years since the adoption of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, however, it still do not draw sufficient attention to women' s particular needs. Ipso facto, the adoption of the Bangkok Rules provides a new paradigm of standards governing the treatment of female inmates to bring more clarity to considerations. It is important and urgent for the States to implement the Bangkok Rules to provide the dynamic standards for the treatment of female inmates. Hence, Thailand is the country which initiated the Bangkok Rules. It is, thus, imperative that female inmates in Thailand are the first to benefit from the Bangkok Rules. Thailand will also widely promote and support the implementation of the Bangkok Rules for the benefits of female inmates.⁸ In additional, Thailand will seriously encourage the implementation of the Bangkok Rules in correctional facilities throughout the country which would also serve as a best practice for other States.