In this preliminary session, we’ll consider methods of guaranteeing prisoner rights per documents of international law and domestic policy. We shall refer here to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which provides for the rights of prisoners, an agreement to which the majority of countries are signatories and are thus bound to enforce. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be treated as the most important international document: relying on protection and recognition, it makes reference to the essential dignity of all members of the human family and their unique and inalienable rights, thus expressing the rights of individuals who’ve been detained and imprisoned. This issue was outlined as a fundamental principle in the United Nations brief of 14 December 1990 concerning conduct with prisoners in accordance with human rights. As the course progresses we’ll enumerate the different types of inmates committed to prisons and vocational centers in the executive regulations of Iran’s prisoner organization, attending to the difference between prisons and detention centers. With reference to the different types of detention centers taken up in the regulations of the Prisons Organization – common, security, and temporary – we’ll then investigate the issue of solitary confinement in the eyes of the law.
In this session we treat the issue of confinement (or deprivation of liberty) as a form of punishment,...
