SUNY Broome’s Fulbright Scholar, Jaime Godoy, UN Human Rights lawyer, and CJES faculty and students engaged in a program today examining human rights in the justice system, in person and via Zoom. It was interesting to focus on discussions of how the international community and the UN interact with member states such as the US around questions of the treatment of people convicted of crimes.
Our focus today was primarily on the use of solitary confinement and on the use of extended incarceration.
We talked about how the UN is committed to engaging member states in honoring their international commitments regarding torture, and how the UN has addressed solitary confinement and the death penalty. We also talked about how NY’s recent HALT law limits the use of solitary confinement in NY. New York Times re: HALT law.
Finally, together with students, we explored the purpose and effectiveness of incarceration programs.
Jaime provided the Human Rights Index which contains all the recommendations produced by the UN human rights mechanisms considering the situation in the countries. Some of them come from the regular national reviews (Committees); other ones come from Special Rapporteurs regarding particular concerns.
We look forward to another conversation about human rights and the justice system. It is a wonderful opportunity to bring a UN human rights lawyer together with criminal justice practitioners and students in the field to discuss how best to structure and operate a system of criminal justice.
Submitted by: CJES
