Covid-19 has had a dramatic impact on all areas of life in many countries across the world. Lockdown measures, quarantines and social distancing has posed particular challenges for those detained, the staff supporting and managing those facilities and others who engage with them. The health of detainees and staff and how to manage hygiene and safety issues in detention contexts is of particular concern. There are also different challenges raised by the various detention contexts such as prisons, youth offending facilities police facilities, court cells, psychiatric and immigration, social care settings, and also new places of detention: quarantine. The responses to this crisis have taken place against a backdrop of, in many countries, existing poor conditions and under-resourced detention facilities. Independent monitoring of detention has never been more important.

As the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) has acknowledged, ‘that whilst the manner in which preventive visiting is conducted will almost certainly be affected by necessary measures taken in the interests of public health, this does not mean that preventive visiting should cease’ (Advice, 25 March 2020). This has posed particular challenges for those who monitor detention, for instance: 

• How to uphold the principle of do no harm while at the same time monitoring the safety of those detained, the staff in those facilities and those monitors still undertaking visits to detention facilities;
• Adapting methodologies to undertake preventive visits and preventive monitoring;
• Inclusion of additional issues that may need monitoring (such as the provision of PPE in detention facilities);
• Considering how existing human rights standards need to be interpreted in the new context; for example ensuring detainees are protected from the virus whilst  appropriate access to the facilities, activities and human contact required to ensure their safety, mental and physical health and rehabilitation
• Recognising new vulnerabilities while not forgetting marginalised and other groups who may be at risk.

The SPT requires that National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) ‘devise methods of fulfilling their preventive mandate in relation to places of detention which minimise the need for social contact but which nevertheless offer effective opportunities for preventive engagement’ (Advice, 25 March 2020).

These swift changes taken by governments in response to Covid-19 have prompted the development of a range of practices by monitoring bodies. These have included: the suspension of all on-site visits by some; others have undertaken short thematically-focused visits with fewer individuals; maintaining direct, albeit remote, contact with detainees and staff through email, phone and other electronic means; adapting interviewing techniques through remote access; using technology to gain access to documents and other material; and triangulating information available from other authorities and institutions in the country.

Aims and outputs