| Amid Coronavirus US
Detention Centers Likened To Those in Peru and
Brazil But UN Hypocrisy
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE / SDNY
COURT, May 5 – During the
spread of COVID-19, the U.S.
prisons that Inner City Press
has reported on daily since
November 2018 have reduced
inmates' access to their
attorneys, to even telephone
calls with family, even to
light bulbs and soap for hand
washing.
Now,
not without the UN's own
hypocrisy, on May 5 from the
Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights
in Geneva, this statement name
checking US detention centers:
"Conditions
in many prisons in the
Americas region are deeply
worrying. Pre-existing
structural problems, such as
chronic overcrowding and
unhygienic conditions, coupled
with the lack of proper access
to healthcare have enabled the
rapid spread of COVID-19 in
many
facilities.
Thousands of inmates and
prison officials have already
been infected across North and
South America. In many
countries, the increasing fear
of contagion and lack of basic
services -- such as the
regular provision of food due
to the prohibition of family
visits -- have triggered
protests and
riots.
Some of these incidents in
detention centres have turned
extremely violent. The latest
happened on 1 May, in Los
Llanos penitentiary in
Venezuela, where a revolt by
prisoners reportedly resulted
in 47 inmates losing their
lives. Four days earlier, on
27 April, a riot broke out in
the Miguel Castro Castro
prison in Peru leaving nine
inmates dead. On 21 March, 23
inmates died after security
forces intervened to supress
rioting in La Modelo prison in
Colombia. Other incidents,
including attempts to escape,
have been registered in
detention centres in
Argentina, Brazil and
Colombia, Mexico and the
U.S.
"The scale
and gravity of the incidents
mentioned above seem to
indicate that in some cases
states have not taken
appropriate measures to
prevent violence in detention
facilities, and that state
agents may have committed use
of force violations in
attempts to re-gain control of
these facilities. We
remind authorities that the
use of force must strictly
comply with the principles of
legality, necessity,
proportionality and
non-discrimination, and that
States have the duty to
protect inmates’ physical and
mental health and well-being,
as set out in the UN Standard
Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners (also
known as the Nelson Mandela
Rules)."
Inner City
Press expects to see this
cited in the filings and
proceedings it has been
reporting on daily, in some
cases live tweeting, for bond
or compassionate release or
sentence reduction under the
U.S. First Step Act.
But
the UN system, which has
declined to answer questions
about its lax
COVID-19 practices in South
Sudan and even in New York in
UN Headquarters on 42nd
Street, where it allowed the
UN Security guards of UNSG
Antonio Guterres to continue
to use their UNHQ
gym, at least three at a
time, while NYC gyms were
ordered closed, has its own
credibility problems. The
generator of the statement,
UNHCHR Michele Bachelet's
spokesman Rupert Colville, has
refused Press questions, like
his UNHQ counterparts Stephane
Dujarric and Melissa Fleming.
Inner City Press will have
more on this.
***
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