Hundreds of women who have been imprisoned have, with human rights organisations, lawyers and activists, written an open letter calling on the organisers of a high-level conference in Rwanda this week to include female incarceration as a key topic.
Current and former female prisoners are excluded from discussions on women’s rights, they say. This has led to a lack of the funding and policy reforms needed to address the alarming increase in the criminalisation of women and the number of children detained with their parent.
