ICPS handbook launched by Baroness Kinnock

Baroness Glenys Kinnock, Minister of State with responsibility for Human Rights, hosted a reception in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on 27 October to mark the publication of the second edition of the ICPS handbook A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management. The first edition of the handbook was published in 2002 It has been translated into 16 languages and is widely used in prison reform work around the world. The second edition updates the text to take account of new international instruments, such as the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture. It also has new chapters on High Security and on Foreign National Prisoners.

The FCO reception was attended by several members of the Houses of Commons and Lords, by diplomatic representatives of several countries which have used the Handbook and by representatives of a number of intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and others involved in prison reform activities.

Earlier in the day ICPS hosted a roundtable in King’s College to discuss the need for a re-affirmation of the international human rights framework in the treatment of prisoners within the context of heightened international concerns about security. Invited participants came from the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Sub Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, the Association for the Prevention of Torture and Penal Reform International. 

Download a pdf of the second edition handbook here