Report No. 78

1.14. U.N. Studies.-

The question of persons in prison has received attention at length in the United Nations. The United Nations held the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders at Geneva in 1955, as a follow-up of the work of the earlier International Penal and Penitentiary Commission. The Congress on Prevention of Crime approved the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, offering guidelines on the basis of which member nations could modify their national practices in the treatment of prisoners.