Dead letter

See how Brazil disrespects the Mandela Rules created by the UN to guarantee dignity in prisons

This Tuesday, July 18, the world over celebrates Mandela Day on the birthday of former South African President Nelson Mandela to remember and honor his struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

According to the UN, the date should also serve as an opportunity to promote humane detention conditions and raise awareness about the importance of viewing the prison population as an extension of society.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison and was subjected to human rights violations that are still routine in prisons around the world. His experience in jail prompted the United Nations to call a series of international standards for the treatment of prisoners the “Mandela Rules”.

• Click here to read the Mandela Rules.

Created in 1955 and updated in 2015, sixty years later, the standards are still widely disrespected in Brazil, the country with the world’s fourth largest prison population, behind only the United States, China and Russia.

“For Brazil, which took part in the review process of the Mandela Rules, these guidelines are a dead letter. Our prison system blatantly violates and reproduces, every day, atrocities like the ones committed against South African prisoners during apartheid,” said Rafael Custódio, coordinator of the Justice program at Conectas. “We have been unable to learn from history and we continue to ignore the international standards that should govern how we treat our prison population,” he added.

Compare what the Mandela Rules say and the real situation in Brazilian prisons: