Public figures, intellectuals, former prisoners and human rights activists have today, Friday 10 December, issued a statement calling for an international ban on long-term solitary confinement and prisoner isolation.

Supporters of the statement include US academic Noam Chomsky, US author and poet Alice Walker, former Guantánamo prisoner Moazzam Begg, former prisoners Paddy Hill and Gerry Conlon (wrongly convicted over IRA bombings in England), former Beirut hostage Terry Waite, lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, barrister Michael Mansfield QC, Emeritus Professor David Brown (University of New South Wales, Australia), and Richard Haley (Chair, Scotland Against Criminalising Communities).

10 December is International Human Rights Day and marks the anniversary of the proclamation in 1948 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The StopIsolation statement says that enforced long-term isolation in all circumstances breaches Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states "no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" and Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that "no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

The statement has been published on a new website, www.stopisolation.org which aims to encourage international collaboration to put an end to long-term solitary confinement.

Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith said:

"Solitary confinement is one of the techniques used to ‘break’ prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. Sadly I can testify that it has the sickening, desired impact, and has caused serious mental health problems for the people I represent. We should put these ugly human experiments behind us."

David Brown said:

"Solitary confinement and other forms of isolation have been a feature of Australian prison systems since colonisation, whether as part of ‘secondary punishment’ or supposedly ‘reformatory’ regimes. Current use is starkest in high security and ‘supermax’ units such as Goulburn High Risk Management Unit (HRMU -or ‘harm -u’ as prisoners call it) in New South Wales and Barwon Melaleuca High Security Unit in Victoria. The historical lesson to be learnt from the various mutations of high security regimes utilising solitary confinement is that whether the aim is punishment or reform, the consequences include long term physical and mental damage, increased violence and brutalisation. In a perverse cycle such regimes produce madness, rage and violence through isolation and then cite this very madness, rage and violence as reasons such regimes are necessary. It is time to heed the historical lessons and break this cycle by ending isolation in favour of fostering social relationships and promoting prisoners’ discursive citizenship and human rights."

Richard Haley said:

"Solitary confinement is one of the elephants in the sitting room of international human rights law. It is so widespread in the United States – where tens of thousands of prisoners are held in isolation – that human rights defenders have sometimes been reluctant to say plainly that long-term isolation is always a human rights violation. The fate of prisoners across the world concerns us all because, as the Declaration of Human Rights reminds us, we are all members of the human family. And also because citizens of Europe may have to face years of solitary confinement if they are extradited to the United States. It’s time to outlaw solitary confinement and outlaw the transfer of prisoners to places where they would be at risk of solitary confinement."

—- ENDS —-

End Prisoner Isolation – read the full statement