Oped»
Jailhouse liaisons
JUN 28 -
Do prisoners have a right to sex as other rights to food, clothes, shelter and so on? It is an issue that seems necessary to be determined soon by the Supreme Court. A writ petition has been lodged at the Supreme Court on behalf of incarcerated couples at Saptari Jail to allow them to live together in prison so that they would be able to enjoy sexual and reproductive rights. This is an issue that has remained unheard in the field of human rights across the globe except for a few countries. So the Supreme Court’s verdict will have not only national but also international importance in the area of human rights.
As this issue is under consideration by the Supreme Court, it is timely to float relevant arguments and opinions with the objective of helping advocates and judges with caution not to affect court proceedings. Should sex be considered a human right or a basic human need? Discussing the topic with many people, I found that they stand on two fronts—some say yes, some say no.
People in favour of sex argue that no one should be prevented from having sexual relations because without it a person might be disturbed and would not function or behave normally. Sex is mainly a mental game, and sexual intercourse is merely culmination of the game, so celibacy or abstinence from sex at the psychological level is quite impossible. People under strict restriction from physical sex enjoy sex psychologically; but when they cannot control themselves, they turn to physical sex. This has been noticed quite often. We read in the news about priests, monks and nuns having sexual relations even under the threat of stern penalties. So, keeping a person fully away from sex is quite impossible. Sex is a social reality.
People who are not in favour of sex as a basic right argue how it can be a basic right when many people can abstain from sex their entire lives. It is true that we have seen many people like priests of the Roman Catholic Church, Buddhist monks and nuns and others maintaining celibacy their entire lives. Even married people or sexual partners can live months and years without having sex; that’s why it cannot be considered as essential as other things like food, clothes, shelter and so on.
Both views are right to some extent. What we can say taking into account the two opinions is that sex is not a basic or urgent need like food, clothes or shelter; but without it people become mentally disturbed. As it is essential for a person to be well not only physically but also mentally, restrictions on sex should be loosened as far as possible considering it is a human need.
In the case of prisoners, would it be reasonable and practical to allow them to have physical sex? It is obvious that being in prison means losing some rights. For example, some basic rights like movement, privacy, work, living with family and so on of a prisoner are restricted. The right to sex also comes in the same vein. If you are allowed to enjoy all the rights like a free person, then nobody will refrain from committing crimes—this is a very common argument. People would be afraid to commit crimes when they know that they are going to miss many things when they are sent to prison for doing so. Forced abstinence from sex would be one of the strong penalties for a prisoner—many people have such an opinion.
We also have to think from another perspective. Do we keep people in jail primarily to punish or correct them? Modern thinking is that prisons should be correction centres so that people released from prison would not commit crimes. If this is the concept, efforts should be made to ensure the basic needs and rights of prisoners so that they have mental peace and come out of jail as a normal person with a changed view that they should not commit crimes again. For mental peace, prisoners should be allowed to have sex also. This can be arranged by allowing incarcerated couples to live together and male and female inmates to meet periodically in a private room within the prison. If the country’s law allows it, an inmate may call a prostitute for a private meeting too.
It has been found that many prisoners lose their spouses as they elope or become promiscuous as they can’t live without sex even though it is a physical and psychological necessity. Such happenings cause mental torture in prisoners and instigate them to commit crimes again. More unfair is an incarcerated person’s sexual partner being punished by not being allowed to have sex without having done anything wrong.
Browsing for information about practices in other countries, it is found that prisoners in the UK are allowed to marry and have children by artificial insemination only. The US does not consider a prisoner to have sexual rights. In some Scandinavian countries and in the Netherlands, prisoners are allowed to have physical sex. Now there is a chance to be a leading country in the matter of guaranteeing sexual rights. Once the principle is accepted, the authorities will try to arrange the matter. We should not refrain from adopting the appropriate principle. Let’s see what verdict the Supreme Court will give on this matter.
(Nepal is with UN Mission in Timor-Leste)
Posted on: 2010-06-29 08:28
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