TIMELINE OF THE SMR REVIEW PROCESS (IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER)

Third Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting, scheduled for March 25-28, 2014, Vienna, Austria

To facilitate the work of the third expert group meeting, the Secretariat to the Governing Bodies of the UNODC (Secretariat) is in the process of preparing a working paper that integrates all submissions from Member States received until 30 September 2013. The UN Committee against Torture, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Friends World Committee for Consultation, Penal Reform International in cooperation with Essex University, and the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) in association with Conectas Derechos Humanos have also submitted documents for the event.

Resolution from the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice on the SMRs, April 26, 2013:

The Secretariat published a report discussing the conclusions of the second Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting and presented it to the twenty-second session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPJ). In response to the report, the CCPJ created a  resolution extending the mandate of the intergovernmental expert meeting and authorizing it to continue its work. The resolution invited Member States to continue to engage in the revision process by submitting proposals for revision in the nine areas identified to the UNODC. A compilation of these documents will be used as material for the third expert meeting that will be hosted by the Austrian government in Vienna in March 2014.

Second Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting, Bueons Aires, Argentina, December 11-13, 2012:

In this meeting the Intergovernmental Expert Group identified the specific issues and rules considered under each preliminary area.  The Secretariat prepared a working paper  that examined the preliminary areas in light of subsequently adopted international instruments, standards and norms, recognized the guidelines and principles; identified relevant rules in the Standard Minimum Rules which may be revised; and outlined proposals, under each preliminary area, to be discussed among the Member States.

A summary of discussions by the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT), as well as the final report on the second meeting can also be accessed here.

Resolution from the CCPJ on the SMR, February 15, 2012:

The Secretariat produced a report summarizing the work of the first Intergovernmental Expert Group to the twenty-first session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPJ), which approved a resolution that was adopted by the General Assembly. Paragraph 8 of the resolution authorized the Intergovernmental Expert Group to continue its work under the mandate and to report on its progress to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice at its twenty-second session in 2013.

First Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting, Vienna, Austria, January 31–February 2, 2012:

The Intergovernmental Expert Group recognized that some of the principles of the SMRs needed to be reviewed and identified several preliminary areas for consideration. Click here to see the complete report. In order to assist the work of the intergovernmental group, the Secretariat prepared a working paper, which, for each of the Rules, identified the advances in internationally recognized good practice and discussed references to recent international instruments.

INDEPENDENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE REVIEW PROCESS

Independent Expert Meeting, Essex, UK, October 2012:

The Detention, Rights and Social Justice Program at the University of Essex and Penal Reform International convened an independent expert meeting on the proposed reform and produced documentation on the outcomes.

International Expert meeting convened by the Special Rapporteur on Torture, Oxford, UK, July 10, 2013:

Experts meet in Oxford to discuss the SMR review process and inform the SRT for his thematic report

In preparation of this thematic report, the SRT hosted an international expert consultation on July 10, 2013 in Oxford to discuss the ongoing revision process of the SMRs and explore the different areas of the SMRs that are relevant to the international prohibition of torture and ill treatment and that demand revision. The meeting was co-sponsored by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law’s Anti-Torture Initiative, and the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations at the University of Oxford.