The aim of the World Prison Awareness Day will be to highlight human rights issues in relation to the incarceration, detention, imprisonment, confinement, custody, captivity and/or internment of people for whatever reason, just or unjust, on remand or sentenced, around the world.
It seems to be quite proper to draw the attention of the world, at least once a year, to the plight of so many thousands and millions of prisoners and their families worldwide. But also to the splendid work that is being done within the prisons by millions of administrators, officers, pastors and volunteers.
If one had to examine the UN’s long list of observances one would find a rich array of commemorative dates paying tribute to almost anything, including World Space Week (4-10 Oct.), World Post Day (9 Oct.), World Television Day (21 Nov.), International Mountain Day (11 Dec.) and many others. Of the 65 observances kept, none pay tribute to prisoners.
There are over nine million prisoners around the world.(1) More than a million of these are children below the age of eighteen.(2) More than half a million prisoners worldwide are women and girls.(3) Most prisoners around the world live in appalling and desperate conditions. Suicides and self-harm in prison every year run in the thousands.(4) More and more prisoners worldwide are abusively worked as slaves.(5) Political, religious and conscientious prisoners are still held in various parts of the world. Virtually all prisoners are at the mercy of methods of surveillance that serve more the governments that pay their upkeep than the people they are supposed to serve.
The United Nations is already making a great effort to protect prisoners from abuse of any kind.(6) So is the Council of Europe,(7) and the European Union.(8) But nonetheless, violations continue to be reported around the globe.(9) In order to achieve the aim of having the UN officially establishing a World Prison Awareness Day, MDD intends to submit a proposal to interested parties (NGOs and individuals) around the world through the Internet for their endorsement.
MDD proposes that the WORLD PRISON AWARENESS DAY would be held annually every February 11. On this day in 1990, one of the world's most famous prisoners in contemporary history, Nelson Mandela, was freed from prison after 27 years.(10)
