Article 17 of the ICCPR provides for the right of every person to be protected against arbitrary or unlawful interference with her privacy. The right to privacy in international law is not absolute. Detention and confinement pursuant to lawful prosecution or punishment is one of the situations in which the right to privacy can be legitimately curtailed. But the person who is incarcerated does not by that fact lose her entire claim to privacy. On the contrary, the state can only restrict her exercise of that right only to the extent strictly made necessary by security concerns incidental to the situation of incarceration. Invasions of privacy cannot be arbitrary and cannot be used as an opportunity for abusive treatment. It is the state's obligation to fulfill its responsibility to provide a secure environment with the minimal possible invasion of the prisoner's privacy. To that end, international law limits the role of male officers in women's prisons, preventing them from participating in the strip search or pat-frisk of women prisoners.14 Abusive cross-gender pat-frisks not only subject women prisoners to degrading treatment, but also constitute a violation of a prisoner's right to privacy.
The Standard Minimum Rules stipulate that incarcerated women should be supervised by female officers.15 Further, these rules require that officers be trained on how to carry out their professional duties, to ensure the humane treatment of women prisoners.16 The Human Rights Committee hasinterpreted Article 17 of the ICCPR to guarantee that body searches, for example, ". . . are carried out in a manner consistent with the dignity of the person who is being searched."17
14 General Comment 16 to Article 17 states that, "Persons being subjected to body search by State officials, or medical personnel acting at the request of the State, should only be examined by persons of the same sex." General Comment 16 to Article 17, "Compilation of General Comments . . . "
15 Standard Minimum Rules, Rule 53.
17 General Comment 16 to Article 17, "Compilation of General Comments . . ."
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