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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 12:24 pm
Time: 12:24 pm
Results for prisons (south america)
1 results foundAuthor: Salla, Fernando Title: Democracy, Human Rights and Prison Conditions in South America Summary: Provided with every legal right, the arrest of individuals and the restriction of their freedom can occur in different situations: individuals that were sentenced by court, individuals suspected of perpetrating a crime, individuals waiting trial, migrants waiting deportation. Nevertheless, the sites of detention are only object of concern domestically or even internationally when prisons are used as an instrument against political rivals during authoritarian regimes that remove from the political arena the democratic rules. Every time there is a routine arrest, mainly of ordinary offenders, prisons become territories of little interest for the public opinion, they have little social visibility, little relevance to the media, little importance to public policies, and only find some room in the political debate when the seriousness of prison conditions reach such levels that can no longer be hidden or ignored. Although bad detention conditions are found even in countries with consolidated democracies, more serious violations, the extremely bad conditions of existence in such environments – unhealthy conditions, overcrowded cells, abuse, and torture – are found in the prisons in those countries with weak democratic organizations, few controls in the hands of civil society, and heavy social and economic inequalities South America can be presented as an example of such region where continuous violations of human rights in the prisons have a close relationship sometimes with the difficulties to run a democratic regime, with the continuous development of authoritarian regimes that were present throughout their history, and sometimes with the deep impacts of poverty and social inequalities. Between 1960 and 1990, several military regimes like those in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile were responsible for many iniquities, among which imprisonment, torture, and the death of political opponents. In the past twenty years, though, the region is in a considerable political stability. Although the authoritarian culture has not been totally overcome, democratic regimes predominate with free elections and continuous renewal of administrations in most of the countries. The new legal statute in these countries does not accept the existence of political prisoners or of prisoners of conscience any more. Nevertheless, currently ordinary prisoners are subject to conditions that hurt human dignity in the prisons, where essential principles established in local legislations are not respected, and basic provisions in international instruments of protection and promotion to human rights are violated. This paper attempts to point out and analyze the political, social, and cultural reasons presents in the contemporary world and that provide the grounds on which ordinary prisoners are subject to severe imprisonment conditions. It also tries to understand how democratic regimes accept the serious violations of human rights that are practiced and that hurt human dignity on a daily basis in such places. It also tries to promote a reflexion on that issue of deep social inequalities in these new democracies that promote disrespect to basic requirements for a dignified life for all citizens, and how such inequalities are related to mass imprisonment. And last but not least, considering the scope of values, perceptions, and sensitivities, it tries to understand how feelings of intolerance and of vengeance grow against these offenders, feelings that are translated into severe life conditions in prisons, into long periods of imprisonment, into harsher disciplinary regimes, just like the support to overdated punishment methods, death penalties, and public exposure of sentenced prisoners has increased. Details: Sao Paulo, Brazil: University of Sao Paulo, 2009. 155p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 23, 2013 at: http://www.udhr60.ch/report/detention_salla0609.pdf Year: 2009 Country: South America URL: http://www.udhr60.ch/report/detention_salla0609.pdf Shelf Number: 129492 Keywords: Human RightsPrisonersPrisons (South America) |