That inevitable suffering? : framing women and torture behind bars

Abstract

Women in detention have been receiving increased attention from international, regional and national human rights organisations. Despite increased attention, the number of women in detention continues to grow, necessitating an urgent consideration of their issues. To what extent can the current treatment of women in detention be considered ‘legitimate’ and the disproportionate suffering arising from it ‘inevitable’? This thesis develops a ‘women-wise’ framework to address the issues facing women in detention with the aim of providing substantive protection against torture and other forms of ill treatment by considering the development of relevant normative standards concerning torture and other ill-treatment, prisoners and women. This women-wise framework is then applied to specific case studies of rape, strip searching and isolation in order to prove the practical applicability of the framework and to demonstrate how protections against torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are able to provide women in detention with tools to address systemic ill-treatment