At the Women's Prison in Petionville, 20-30 detainees cram into each prison cell where women and girls and young as 14 sleep on the floor, often in shifts, and the majority wait years to see a judge. More than 80% of all detainees in Haiti are being held in prolonged pretrial detention during which time inmates can wait between 4-6 years for their court case to be heard. 
Photo Victoria Hazou UN/MINUSTAH

UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women Calls for Submissions on Women and Girls Deprived of Liberty

The United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice is presenting a thematic report on women deprived of liberty at the 41st session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2019. This report aims to take a comprehensive approach to the issue of women and girls deprived of liberty by including various forms of restriction or interference with women’s personal liberty or movement by state and non-state actors, including on the basis of their sex and prescribed gender roles. It will examine the causes, nature, and extent of the deprivation of liberty of women and girls, with particular attention to the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls.

Therefore, the Working Group is calling for States and other stakeholders, including NGOs, to fill in a questionnaire (English, French, Spanish), as well as to send documents and reports of consultations with information on women deprived of liberty for submission for the Working Group’s consideration.

Given the recent increased focus on the deprivation of liberty from States, civil society, academia, and the United Nations, the NGO Panel for the Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty considers that this is an excellent opportunity to continue the work on the deprivation of liberty and the development of international law in this area, and to focus on the specific barriers and challenges faced by women and girls.

The submissions should be sent to wgdiscriminationwomen@ohchr.org.

The deadline for submissions is October 12, 2018.

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