IPRT Submission to UN Working Group on Women deprived of liberty

1st October 2018

The UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice will present a thematic report on women deprived of liberty to the 41st session of the Human Rights Council in June 2019. The report will examine the causes, nature and extent of the deprivation of liberty of women and girls, with particular attention to the impact of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls.

The Working Group developed a questionnaire to guide the input of States and other stakeholders. The Group requested information on: the justice system; other institutions; forced confinement in private contexts; and migration and crisis situations. The IPRT submission focused on women deprived of their liberty in the justice system.

In the submission, IPRT highlighted:

• The causes of women coming into conflict with the law;
• Over-representation of Traveller women in prison;
• Offences for which women are charged;
• Challenges to accessing justice for women;
• And the use of non-custodial measures.

To support the submission, IPRT provided data on the number of women in custody, female committals, overcrowding in women's prisons, youth detention, pre-trial detention, use of community sanctions, numbers of Traveller women, and offence type.

In addition to the information contained in the submission, IPRT pointed to the Concluding Observations relevant to women deprived of their liberty made to the Irish State by UN Committees (UN CAT and UN CEDAW).

To read the IPRT Submission to UN Working Group on Women deprived of liberty, click here.

Read more:

• IPRT: Recommendations to the UN CEDAW Committee (2017)
• IPRT: UN Committee against Torture’s Concluding Observations on Ireland (2017)
• IPRT Position Paper 10: Women in the Criminal Justice System (2013)