The Commissioner for Human Rights: Conceptual Approaches and National Penitentiary System Realities

Abstract

Socio-political discourse since the middle of the twentieth century has led towards a reform of state penal systems in European societies in response to the larger debate of mediating the elements of state power and human rights. A theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of punishment as a practice of political power formed in accordance with the values of the state and tempered by international customary law devoted to the protection of human rights in penal systems shows that several approaches of understanding are possible.  However, most socio-political perspectives share the realisation that in the instances where law involves human life political authority exercises a biopolitical power that seeks to influence societal reform through punishment by depriving human rights to a degree based on the value orientation of the state ideology. In turn, independent regulatory or monitoring bodies can consider the violation of human rights in a state penitentiary system as a corollary of public policy and as an element of analysis of the social protections afforded to vulnerable groups (including those under detention) as well as society at large.  A possible response from human rights’ institutions should be supported by an understanding of the ideological values the state as well as a knowledge of relevant international regulatory frameworks and ways to protect the rights of prisoners and their families. Based on the Commissioner for Human Rights and its regional bodies’ annual reports for the period of 2001 to 2011, an analysis of the Russian penal system’s observance of human rights is discussed not only as a reflection of the social reality of Russian prisons, but also as a manifestation of the values of political governance. Identified by its monitoring of complaints of human rights violations and efforts to work with the Federal Penitentiary Service, the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia acts as a ‘security mechanism’ for the protection of individual rights. At the same time the Commissioner for Human Rights serves to challenge the Russian state’s “punitive” actions against prisoners that correspond to the theoretical approach wherein the state threatens the security of its citizens under the pretext of the fight against crime as a political tool.