Toolkit on Gender Responsive Non-Custodial Measures

The Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have just launched the Toolkit on Gender Responsive Non-Custodial Measures. 

As research shows, women are the fastest growing prison population around the world as a result of the gendered nature of poverty, discrimination and violence. The harmful impact of imprisonment on women, their families and communities has also been widely documented. Countries world over are acknowledging the importance of providing alternatives to imprisonment for women offenders, taking into account their gender-specific backgrounds and needs. Now more than ever, with the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, there is a need to look towards non-custodial measures for women offenders to reduce the burden on the criminal justice system, maintain the health and safety of those in prison and ensure effective rehabilitation.

This toolkit provides ways to ensure that women in contact with the law are not detained or imprisoned unnecessarily and that detention is used as a measure of last resort, using a gender-sensitive application of criminal laws, policies and procedures. Recognising the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement, this toolkit is aimed at providing guidance to judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers, probation officers, health professionals, media and civil society organisations on methods to enhance the impact of gender responsive non-custodial measures. 

The toolkit has been developed following an expert group meeting in Bangkok, Thailand from 2-4 September 2019 which brought together more than 30 experts from around the world to provide technical expertise on the publication.

To read the full toolkit, click here