Do you know the mandela rules?

Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years and his story inspired the creation of international guidelines for the treatment of prisoners

Today the whole world celebrates Mandela day (18). This date was created to remember and honour the fight of the ex-president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who was born on this day. He fought for freedom, justice and equality. According to the UN this should also be an opportunity to call for humanitarian conditions for detainees and to raise awareness about the importance of seeing those in prison as an extension of society.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison and was submitted to human rights violations that still take place on a daily basis in prisons around the world. His experience in jail led the UN to name a set of international standards for the treatment of prisoners  the “Mandela Rules”.

• Click here to read the Mandela Rules.

This document was created in 1955 and updated in 2015 and is still widely disregarded in Brazil, a country with the fourth largest prison population in the world, topped only by the United States, China and Russia.

“Brazil, who participated in the process of revising the Mandela Rules, treats these guidelines as dead letter. Every day, our prison system flagrantly violates and repeats the same atrocities as those committed against prisoners in South Africa during the time of Apartheid.” Said Rafael Custódio, Coordinator on the Conectas Justice programme.

“We have been incapable of learning from history and we insist on ignoring international standards that should regulate the way in which we treat our prison population.” He added.

Compare what is said in the Mandela Rules and the situation in Brazilian prisons: