CSC has breached the rights set out in section 5 of the Basic Principles by its ongoing failure to remedy its discrimination of FSW, in spite of the several reports that have demanded that CSC change its treatment of FSW. Section 5 of the Basic Principles states that:

5. Except for those limitations that are demonstrably necessitated by the fact of incarceration, all prisoners shall retain the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and where the State concerned is a party, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto, as well as such other rights as are set out in other United Nations covenants (emphasis added).

iii) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Canada is also party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.103 CSC’s poor administrative practices as they relate to FSW, especially the application of maximum security classification and lack of specific programming to meet the varied needs of FSW, constitute violations of articles 7 and 10 of the Covenant. According to Article 10:

(1) All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.

(3) The penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has described this obligation in the following terms:

Article 10, paragraph 1, imposes on States parties a positive obligation towards persons who are particularly vulnerable because of their status as persons deprived of liberty, and complements for them the ban on torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment contained in article 7 of the Covenant. Thus, not only may persons deprived of their liberty not be subjected to treatment that is contrary to article 7, including medical or scientific experimentation, but neither may they be subjected to any hardship or constraint other than that resulting from the deprivation of liberty; respect for the dignity of such persons must be guaranteed under the same conditions as for that of free persons. Persons deprived of their liberty enjoy all the rights set forth in the Covenant, subject to the restrictions that are unavoidable in a closed environment.¹⁰⁴