United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Central America and the Caribbean

UNODC Introduces the Nelson Mandela Rules in Paraguay

At the invitation of the Ministry of Justice of Paraguay and under the leadership of the Office of UNODC in that country, the Prison Reform Team Coordinator of UNODC ROPAN, participated in a technical mission addressed to support authorities in the conceptualization of a handbook for prison management.

A workshop on Nelson Mandela Rules was also conducted, aimed at personnel of the Ministry of Justice and the Prison System at the facilities of the Centre for Prison Studies.

Moreover, the Law School and the Ministry of Justice organized a conference to present the challenges of the Prison Systems in Latin America and the impact of the Nelson Mandela Rules. Participants included more than 100 operators of the criminal justice system. The conference was in charge of the Prison Reform Team Coordinator of UNODC ROPAN, María Noel Rodríguez.

At the different activities carried out during the mission, copies of the Nelson Mandela Rules, the Bangkok Rules and the UNODC overall strategy in prison matters, were distributed.

As part of the mission, an exchange of experiences was performed in order to know the prison brand of Paraguay "MUA" (which includes all products made inside prisons), aimed at strengthen the process of creating the brand "Integrarte" in Panama, which will be launched in October this year.