Gaspard Onokoko. GRA-REDEP strives to promote and protect the rights of human beings and youth by supporting initiatives to educate people on the rights of prisoners, migrants, unaccompanied minors, women and girls. Within this context, it seeks to revitalise the process of ratification of international and regional conventions on the rights of women, girls and disabled persons.. It ensures that those principles are incorporated into legislation.

GRA-REDEP considers the sexual violence to which women often fall prey a form of torture. It regularly visits detention centres, following which it dispatches reports or urgent alerts to the prison administration. The NGO visited Liberté VI in order to fulfil this mission.

The visit to the prison took place on 23 December 2020 in an unforgettable context: the COVID-19 health crisis, a context that highlighted the health aspect of the security responsibilities incumbent upon the prison administration.

This context was defined by restrictions and protective measures, among other things. Accessibility was limited as visits from NGOs and diplomatic associations, admission of researchers and even familial visits were suspended. The latter in particular had until then enabled prisoners to communicate with their parents at least once a week.

Confronted with such problems cropping up due to COVID-19, families and friends of the prisoners reached out to GRA-REDEP, and requested that we investigate Liberté VI. We therefore filed a request and obtained official authorisation from the prison administration. We first conducted a preliminary visit during which we met the prison governor (régisseur/régisseuse de prison) and formulated transparent questionnaires so as to establish a rapport of trust and cooperation between GRA-REDEP and the prison officials.

Then, we sought to gain the trust of the prisoners. We apprised them of the importance of our visit and collected their testimonials. We visited all the premises. Lastly, we recorded our observations and sent them to the prison administration, ministries and prisoners’ rights services.

GO. Overall, there are not many women in prison: note that women prisoners account for only 2.7% of the incarcerated population in Senegal. Their imprisonment is governed by strict regulations. The object of this visit was to assess the degree of respect for the rights of prisoners and women and verify they had access to training and reintegration programmes. We interacted with 84 prisoners, the full complement of Liberté VI. We noticed that the facility had made significant progress when compared to our visits in 2007 and 2015.

We realised that the profiles of imprisoned women shed light on the gender problems that persist in Senegalese society. Indeed, as we have pointed out in our report, infanticide is the main cause of incarceration of women and girls, with up to 46% being convicted for this reason. Moreover, at the time of the visit, 23% had been imprisoned for having an abortion.

It must be noted that the crime of infanticide is often the consequence of pre-existing discrimination or violence, including pregnancies resulting from acts of sexual violence: rape, incest or child sexual abuse. Furthermore, the magnitude of these convictions is partly explained by the absolute prohibition of abortion, the sentence for which is up to five years in prison.

Women who engage in prostitution are considered potential offenders. Prostitution, though legal in Senegal, becomes a crime punishable by imprisonment when a sex worker does not have a health record (carnet de santé), or is unregistered. On top of that, of course, there is a lack of instruction and education in the areas of sexual and reproductive health.

It should also be known that overpopulation is still the main characteristic of most Senegalese prisons. In the case of Liberté VI, overpopulation significantly contributes to the violation of the rights of prisoners. It affects the detention conditions and the work of prison officials.

GO. Women’s prisons ought to be able to meet the specific needs of its prisoners. The women in Liberté VI seem relatively well cared for. We were especially concerned about motherhood in prison. The normative framework particularly prescribes the provision of appropriate and sufficient measures to ensure the dignity of breastfeeding and pregnant women.

We have reported the lack of consideration of the special situation of breastfeeding and pregnant prisoners, and those with children. Overall, the prison administration should provide appropriate conditions for childbirth, and establish a specialised system and frequency for medical examinations. We acknowledge that some efforts have been made in this regard at the administrative level. In particular, they contributed financially to the care of a woman who had just given birth.

Furthermore, women are particularly affected by the lack of education, and therefore find themselves socially and economically isolated. We have stressed the fact that the prison administration ought to facilitate the rehabilitation of imprisoned women through educational and literacy programmes, professional training, sports and cultural activities and even spiritual assistance.