The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were first adopted in 1957, and in 2015 were revised and adopted as the Nelson Mandela Rules. The Standard Minimum Rules are often regarded by states as the primary – if not only – source of standards relating to treatment in detention, and are the key framework used by monitoring and inspection mechanisms in assessing the treatment of prisoners.
The Nelson Mandela Rules
The 122 Rules cover all aspects of prison management and outline the agreed minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners – whether pre-trial or convicted. They are supplemented by the UN Bangkok Rules on women prisoners.
The Rules give guidance on all aspects of prison management, from admission and classification to the prohibition of torture and limits on solitary confinement. There is guidance on healthcare, recruitment and training of prison staff, as well as disciplinary sanctions. PRI’s Short Guide to the Rules gives an overview of the Rules.
The Rules are known as the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules’ to honour the legacy of the late President of South Africa, ‘who spent 27 years in prison in the course of his struggle for global human rights, equality, democracy and the promotion of a culture of peace’. The revised Rules were adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly (UN-Doc A/Res/70/175) on 17 December 2015.
Download a copy of the Nelson Mandela Rules.
Guidance and tools for putting the Nelson Mandela Rules into practice
- Text of the revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) (available in multiple languages and a marked version showing the substantive changes made in the 2015 revision process)
- Animated introduction to the Nelson Mandela Rules
- Short Guide to the Nelson Mandela Rules (a summary of the revision process is included and Rules that were new in 2015 are highlighted throughout)
- Guidance Document on the Nelson Mandela Rules
- Detention Monitoring Tool (set of resources to support external monitoring bodies, with guidance based on the Nelson Mandela Rules)
Latest updates
News
Capacity building for correctional staff in the Philippines
In January-February 2023, PRI delivered a 3-week series of trainings in partnership with UNODC in the Philippines on the UN Nelson Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules, reaching 150 frontline jail and prison officers from Luzon, Visayas and Davao regions in the Philippines, in collaboration with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the […]
Briefing
Coronavirus: Preventing harm and human rights violations in criminal justice systems
As governments around the world continue to navigate the global coronavirus pandemic, with some beginning to ease restrictions in communities and prison systems, while others grapple with increasing infection rates and spikes in cases, PRI’s briefing published 14 July 2020 considers how criminal justice systems are responding, how it is affecting people serving custodial and […]
Languages: English
Guidelines
Guidance Document on the Nelson Mandela Rules
Produced by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Penal Reform International (PRI), this document provides guidance for implementing the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the UN Nelson Mandela Rules. The Guidance Document is the result of a joint project by ODIHR and PRI that is designed to […]
Languages: English, Georgian