Intersectionality Of Human Rights Violations

In addition, Human rights violations may occur when there is an intersectionality of age, culture and more specifically incarceration. As stated by Amoah (2007) in reference to younger individual, age may determine an individual’s value in the wider society. Thus, the intersectionality of age, gender, race and culture can further marginalize and disadvantage those who seem to be in between. In theory, human rights should apply to every individual, but in reality one’s membership to a particular group may impact the ways in which human rights are protected. Amoah (2007) states that in many cases children and females disproportionately face inequalities in seemingly disadvantaged communities. Although, these references are made to children and
females, many parallels can be found within the message. Indeed, if an individual’s characteristics were different like age, gender or race, their access to power, privileges and legitimacy would drastically be different (Amoah, 2007: 5). Due to our consumption based world, older individuals may possibly be at the bottom of the hierarchical ladder. In a sense, older individual may not be able to contribute as much in wider society, when compared to their younger counterparts.
In addition, their ageing process also points to the possibility of increased dependency on that state, tax payers and health services. As such, their age also affects their access, to power, social privileges and legitimacy due to their increased dependency on the state. Furthermore, the largest intersection for the older offender is the negative effects that are accompanied by ageing and the mere incarceration that completely effects their agency and power. The incarceration in of itself, limits an individuals life chance and opportunities, and if we were to combine that with age, these individuals have no control over their treatment. In fact, Age-related stereotypes also influence the ways in which health and other resources are allocated to them (Aday, 1994). There are numerous rights which are affected by the intersectionality of age and incarceration in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted by the UN in 1955, the United Nations Principles for Older Persons adopted by the General Assembly in 1991 and the Convention on the rights of persons with disability brought into force in
2008. To begin, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as well as the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955) state that everyone has the right to standard living conditions that are adequate for the health and well being of themselves.
As stated by the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (1991), these standards include standard living conditions that include access to food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services. As stated previously, since prisons were designed to punish the young offender, their health service and staff were designed and trained to treat the typical offender. Treatment of chronic illnesses associated with cancer, dementia, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is becoming more of a concern as the proportion of older offenders continues to increase (Sapers, 2011). In turn, the treatment of these types of illnesses often require access to medical care which is not provided in most prisons ( Sapers, 2011). Many offenders lack access to proper health care, thus violating their human rights. Moreover, it is important to state that these conclusions do not justify that these human rights violations only occur to those in prison. In fact, not only are the rights relating to appropriate health care violated but we can also assume that the right to security is also violated. As stated in the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (1991), older individuals inherently have the right to access to health
care to help them maintain their current mental, physical and emotional health. Moreover it is important to consider that the security of the person is also being violated because their access the adequate and reasonable health care is diminished. Further, Article 9 to 14 of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (United Nations, 1955) directly address the prisoner’s rights to reasonable accommodation for all offenders. More specifically article 10 states that “all accommodation provided for the use of prisoners and in particular all sleeping accommodation shall meet all requirements of health, due regard being paid to climatic conditions and particularly to cubic content of air, minimum floor space, lighting, heating and ventilation” (United Nations, 1955). As we have suggested earlier, older offenders are currently living in environments that are not adapted for older offenders. Due to the overcrowding in prisons, offenders may be required to access the top bunk, when they may not be physically capable. Similarly, the right to standard living conditions also fall under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability, in this case we would be referring to disability in relation to the ageing process (Stein & Lord, 2010). As such, persons with disabilities have the right to the highest attainable standard living conditions without any discrimination on the basis of disability (Stein & Lord, 2010). Older individuals, like any other persons should have living conditions that are safe and adaptable to personal preference and changes in capacities (United Nations, 1991). In sum, prisons are currently not meeting the unique needs of older offender, resulting in multiple human rights violations, relating to appropriate accommodations, medical services and security. As such, it would be reasonable to demand that older offenders should be treated equally when compared to other subgroups of offenders.