Respect the rules
Rules
Nelson Mandela Rules
All of our detainee advocacy programs are pegged around the Nelson Mandela Rules (NMR), which is the popular name for the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. These 122 rules are the universally acknowledged blueprint for prison management in the 21st century.
Rules versus reality
But just as blueprints are not actual buildings, so these rules are not yet universal practice. Together with the UN, monitoring agencies and NGOs across the globe, we are committed to turning these rules into actual practice - for the benefit of detainees, custodial staff, and our society at large.
Culture
Guilt/innocence
Most guilt/innocence cultures are individualist and found in the Western world. Everything is either right or wrong. Laws determine innocence and guilt. Individuals feel guilty for what they have done or not done. Communication is direct and confrontation is acceptable.
Honor/shame
Most honor/shame cultures are collectivist and found in the Eastern world. The issue isn’t right or wrong but honorable or dishonorable. Rules may exist, but being respected, acquiring honor and avoiding shame are the highest goals. Group success comes above individual achievement. Communication is indirect and body language communicates feelings.
Response
Cultural response
Many (but by no means all) countries with poor human rights records operate along honor/shame lines. And so individuals and organisations respond to even the threat of adverse publicity in a manner that seeks to protect their collective honor. This makes fast, public and direct criticism counter-productive and sometimes even dangerous.
Our response
And so we try to be creatively constructive rather than directly critical. Each of our detainee advocacy programs turns a particular NMR into a respectful message. We don’t accuse anyone of breaking a particular rule - because ‘rules’ are guilt/innocence language. Encouraging ‘respect’ is honor/shame language. Put it together and you’ve got a hybrid ‘respect the rules’ approach. It’s slower, more private and indirect. But it’s safer. And it produces more meaningful, long-term changes for the better.
‘I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Matthew 25:36