“The rights of the prisoner in international law”I. Introduction: History of Prisoners' Rights Imprisonment, or the forced confinement of a person, has been a long-standing practice and tradition in world history (Roberts). Dating back to 400 BC, prisons have had a variety of meanings and served a wide range of functions, but in their fundamental use, prisons are intended to complement the rise of a state as a form of social organization (Roberts). The most common use of prisons is as a supplement to a state's justice system, where individuals convicted and sentenced for crimes are sent for a specified period of imprisonment (Roberts). In addition to punishing civil crimes, prisons have been used by numerous regimes as tools of political repression, often punishing and detaining individuals without trial or other due process (Robert). Another practiced use of prisons has occurred in times of war and conflict, where people, both combatants and non-combatants, are held captive by a state in military camps as prisoners of war, for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons (Robert). It is in this latter use that the prison system has become highly contested, especially after witnessing the extreme atrocities of the Second World War exacerbated by the perverse use of prisons and detention facilities as means of oppression: thousands of people have been persecuted on the basis of racial, religious and political reasons (Roberts). Combat zones were no exception, as POWs were exploited for their labor and subjected to both mental and physical abuse (Roberts). From this disposition of prisons as systematic institutions of violence, a broad global consensus emerged calling for the international community to create safeguards for... middle of paper ......red on the historical understanding of securing rights for the state, rather than for its citizens. Considered the ultimate and overarching authority in which the world should act and determine its domestic and foreign policies, human rights serve as “a surprising foray into the usually well-preserved domain of sovereignty.” States". This construction of rights for prisoners has led to great confusion as well as hostility between states as they feel that part of their sovereignty is being violated as the international community not only dictates what the state can and cannot do, but imposes a series of rules that could be completely foreign to the country. The struggle between the recognition of prisoners' rights and the sovereignty of a state has provoked great tensions throughout the international community and ultimately led some states to reject the proposals.