Professor Kasey McCall-Smith leads workshop on environmental conditions of detention

Gathering at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights in Lima, Peru, on 8-9 September 2025, Professor Kasey McCall-Smith, Bruno Rodriguez Reggevino (current PhD student at Edinburgh Law School) and Sam Gluckstein, Director of the UK National Preventive Mechanism hosted representatives from National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) across Latin America for a workshop under the title Towards a Broader Global Understanding of  Environmental Conditions of Detention – Focus on the Americas. The aim of the two-day workshop was to provide a space to share monitoring practices and to strengthen the capacity of NPMs to enhance oversight, advocate for systemic reforms, and ensure compliance with domestic, international and regional standards, including NPM expectations and the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture (SPT) recommendations. The ultimate purpose was to support the development of further guidance addressing the environmental conditions of detention not currently specified in international or regional detentions standards as a means of guarding against all conditions that give rise to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Building upon the guidance developed under the project Understanding of Environmental Conditions of Detention, the workshop explored how guidelines published following the initial phase of the project in 2024 can be understood in the Latin American context. NPMs from Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Paraguay engaged with the Guidelines and situated these issues in the realities of their monitoring experiences and broader socio-political systems.

The event welcomed presentations by Maria Luisa Romero (Chair of the UN SPT), Marco Feoli Villalobos (SPT Special Rapporteur on Peru), Elizabeth Salmón (UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea), and Pablo Gonzales (Legal Director for the Inter-American Court on Human Rights). Discussions focused on international and regional standards as well as highlighting why it is necessary to have a point of reference for what the project frames as ‘environmental conditions’ even if the practical application of the broader detention setting standards, such as the Nelson Mandela Rules, is barely possible.

Recognising the value in improving conditions of detention in places where people are deprived of their liberty, NPMs communicated how ensuring safe, human rights compliant detention conditions fulfils the most basic elements of preserving human dignity. The workshop confirmed that thinking about how we frame environmental conditions of detention can provide a valuable addition in the fight to end all forms of prohibited treatment in all places where people are deprived of liberty.

Professor McCall-Smith will be presenting aspects of the project as part of the Centre for Security Research (SSPS) Contemporary Security Challenges series on 30 October. 

The workshop was made possible by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Grant awarded to the University of Edinburgh (grant reference ES/X00466X/1).