Draft principles on the human rights of persons in detention or imprisonment
These Draft Principles were originally recommended in 1975 for incorporation in the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
Most violations of the hum an rights of arrested persons – particularly the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment – occur before a person is charged with a crime and while he is under interrogation or preventive detention. The International Commission of Jurists therefore recommended that the Standard Minimum Rules be broadened to protect such persons as well as form ally charged prisoners.
In response to the recommendation of the Fifth United Nations Congress and the United Nations General Assembly however, the Commission re-cast these principles as a separate instrum ent and subm itted it to the 32nd session of the United Nations Commission on H um an Rights, held at Geneva in February, 1976.
These principles, published here through the generosity of the J.M . Kaplan Fund, are still under consideration by the Human Rights Commission and its subordinate bodies.
