Introduction: Implementing Human Rights in Closed Environments

Abstract

This chapter introduces an edited book which examines human rights in closed environments. The closed environments considered are prisons, police cells, forensic psychiatric institutions, closed mental health units, closed disability units and immigration detention centres. Many of the chapters contained in the edited book have been written by presenters at the Implementing Human Rights in Closed Environments conference held in Melbourne in February 2012. The introduction argues that there are three strands to a strategic framework for implementing human rights in closed environments (a human rights-based regulatory framework, independent monitoring against human rights standards, and human rights culture change), and introduces each of the eight articles contained in the book, linking them to the three strands of the strategic framework.