‘Groundbreaking’ UN agreement on justice for women to include those in prison for first time

The “groundbreaking” inclusion of female incarceration in a global agreement on justice for women and girls adopted at the UN this week has been hailed by campaigners as an opportunity to bring about change for hundreds of thousands of women in prison around the world.

The agreed conclusions of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), being held this week and next at the UN headquarters in New York, explicitly mention “women in detention and in imprisonment”. They set out to address their plight while taking into account the links between discriminatory laws, violence against women and girls and increased risk of incarceration.