Monitoring Closed Environments: The Role of Oversight Bodies

Abstract

In 2008, the Law Faculty at Monash University was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant entitled Applying Human Rights legislation in Closed Environments: a Strategic Framework for Managing Compliance. The research commenced in 2009 and was completed in 2012.The ARC Monash project focused on the major categories of closed environments: prisons, police cells, forensic psychiatric institutions, closed mental health and disability units, and immigration detention facilities. The aim of the ARC project was to understand how these closed environments, with their inherent risks for individual human rights of detainees, incorporate human rights considerations in managing the conditions and treatment of persons held in the facilities.In this 3rd Working Paper the critical role of oversight bodies in relation to closed environments and human rights is examined.