Who petitions the UN?

I thought it was only other countries residents that did so. Well, in October, human rights activists in New York City; Washington, D.C.; London; and Kingston, Jamaica presented the UN with a petition from incarcerated organizers requesting humanitarian intervention. These activists were referring to the South Carolina prison system. The petition called for adequate food and water, time outdoors, access to vocational training and the removal of steel plates blocking sunlight inside Level 3 prisons.

It seems that prisoners held in the state’s high-security prisons spend 20 to 24 hours a day in 9 by 11 cells with small windows that have been covered with steel plates. They have no access to rehabilitative services or educational programs and are not allowed any freedom of movement outside their cells.

The prisoners, themselves, say guards have committed serious abuses, such as withholding water from prisoners and arbitrarily subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement. Plus, they also list mold problems, rotting food, contaminated drinking water and a lack of access to showers.