A/RES/72/193
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
23 January 2018
Seventy-second session
Agenda item 107
Resolution adopted by the General Assembly
on 19 December 2017
[on the report of the Third Committee (A/72/440)]
72/193.
Promoting the practical application of the United Nations
Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
(the Nelson Mandela Rules)
The General Assembly,
Bearing in mind the long-standing concern of the United Nations for the
humanization of criminal justice and the protection of human rights, and emphasizing
the fundamental importance of human rights in the daily administration of criminal
justice and crime prevention,
Recalling its resolution 65/230 of 21 December 2010, entitled “Twelfth United
Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice”, in which it requested
the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice to establish an open-ended
intergovernmental expert group to exchange information on best practices, national
legislation and existing international law and on the revision of existing United
Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners so that they reflected
recent advances in correctional science and best practices,
Mindful of the extensive consultative process culminating in the
recommendations of the Expert Group on the Standard Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners, a process spanning a period of five years, consisting of
technical and expert pre-consultations, meetings in Vienna, Buenos Aires and Cape
Town, South Africa, and the active participation and input of Member States from all
regions, assisted by representatives of the United Nations crime prevention and
criminal justice programme network and other United Nations entities, including the
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the
Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,
intergovernmental organizations, including the International Committee of the Red
Cross, specialized agencies in the United Nations system, including the World Heal th
Organization, and non-governmental organizations and individual experts in the field
of correctional science and human rights,
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