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70 Crime L. & Soc. Change 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/crmlsc70 and id is 1 raw text is: Crime Law Soc Change (2018) 70:1-18                                   CrossMark
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-017-9716-0
European and United Nations monitoring of penal
and prison policies as a source of an inverted panopticon?
Gaetan Cliquennois'  Sonja Snacken'
Published online: 20 November 2017
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V 2017
Introduction
Penal and prison policies are marked both in the US and Europe by a punitive trend
attested notably by an important rise of the prison population over last decades and
human rights violations committed on a large scale by the States [1-5]. These viola-
tions have been reported by several international bodies created immediatly after the
second world war and charged of monitoring penal and prison policies [6]. This
international monitoring system was described and seen at that time as poorly influent,
not compulsory and not binding on Member States [6, 7]. For instance, the European
Court of Human Rights was considered by Livinstone as very reluctant to support
judicial supervision of prison policies and to undermine substantial discretion left to the
prison authorities [7]. Since fiveteen years, this monitoring system has however
radically changed and expanded its scope and its obligations imposed on States to
such an extent that it could be described as an influential and spreading socio-legal
trend which is contributing to the development of modern and democratic societies [8].
A monitoring of penal and prison policies has been effectively carried out by the
United Nations (UN) both through its standards setting such as the Minimum Rules for
the Treatment of Prisoners edicted in 1955 and updated and revised through the 2015
UN Nelson Mandela Rules that notably address important issues like mental health,
limiting solitary confinement, and independent penal monitoring. The Mandela Rules2
'Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders,
held at Geneva on 30 August 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663
C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977.
2Nelson Mandela Rules, 17 December 2015, UN-Doc A/Res/70/175.
W Gaetan Cliquennois
cliquennois @unistra.fr
Sonja Snacken
Sonja.Snacken@vub.ac.be
343 chaussee de Waterloo, 1060 Brussel, Belgium

4_ Springer

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