Water For Justice

Monitoring human rights in Lesotho

Prison visits

Before reporting on human rights in any given country, monitoring is an indispensable first step towards identifying and subsequently remedying any human rights problems that might exist. TRC through its human rights programme is also a penal reformer which is committed to making Human Rights a reality Lesotho. To strive towards achieving this objective, human rights officer attended a series of meetings with the Commissioner of Correctional Services and specifically the human rights unit to discuss the proposed visits in the main prisons of Lesotho, with the intention of monitoring human rights therein. While this intended visits reflects the centrality of this issue and its role as a cornerstone of lasting penal reform effort, it also reflects the genuine commitment to promoting human rights and human dignity on the part of Lesotho Correctional Services and TRC.

The meeting also reflected on an understanding that respect for human rights is an essential feature of penal system that places reform and rehabilitation above retribution and punitive treatment. The ultimate objective of the intended study will be to make some recommendations and suggest some best ways and training activities that will promote good prison management and human rights. The study will kick-start by visits to the main prisons in Lesotho to interview the inmates. Under this objective, the officer collected the Ombudsman Report on the inspection of the government prisons and hospitals in Lesotho (2003), which listed the prison conditions which were not very favourable to the interest and rights of the inmates.