From Persecution to Prison - Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of ...

instruments must not be applied for any longer time than is strictly necessary.”315 Thus the “shackling” of asylum seekers at the airport violates theprohibition against using shackles as restraints in the Standard MinimumRules of using shackles, and “may be said to constitute cruel and unusualpractices,” according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence AgainstWomen. 316 In her 1999 report on the US, the Special Rapporteur foundasylum seekers suffered such violations. 317RecreationThe Standard Minimum Rules require that detainees be allowed at leastone hour of recreation per day and that those who are young or physicallyable receive “physical and recreational training” during that period. 318Space, installations and equipment are to be provided for that purpose. 319The UNHCR Guidelines state detainees are entitled to “some form ofphysical exercise through daily indoor and outdoor recreational activities;”320 “access to basic necessities, i.e., beds, shower facilities, basic toiletries,etc.” 321Interpreters“The director, his deputy, and the majority of the other personnel of theinstitution shall be able to speak the language of the greatest number ofprisoners, or a language understood by the greatest number of them,”according to the Standard Minimum Rules. “Whenever necessary, the servicesof an interpreter shall be used.” 322US Standards for Detention of Immigrants, including AsylumSeekersPrior to 1998, the treatment and conditions at INS detention facilitieswere governed by only a handful of laws and regulations. 323 In 1998, in315Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 34.316Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causesand consequences, Report of the mission to the United States of America on the issue of violenceagainst women in state andfederal prisons, UN Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-fifth session, Item 12 (a) of the provisionalagenda, UN Doc. No. E/CN.4/1999/68/Add.2, 4 January 1999, para. 51,54 [USReport, UN Spec. Rap. Violence against Women].317US Report, UN Spec. Rap. Violence against Women, para. 51.318Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 21.319Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 21.320UNHCR Guidelines, Guideline 10(vi).321UNHCR Guidelines, Guideline 10(ix).322Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 51(1).323HRW, Locked Away, p.4.LEGAL STANDARDS 173