November 2007

PRI was host to a regional conference on juvenile justice in Amman, Jordan, earlier this month, in cooperation with the Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS). The two-day event, which was sponsored by the Swedish Department for International Development (SIDA), brought together juvenile justice experts from across the Middle East and North Africa to review the implementation of juvenile justice reforms in the region.

Pierre Claver Mbonimpa, founder and president of the Association Burundaise pour la protection des Droits Humain et des Personnes Détenues (APRODH) has been awarded the The Martin Ennals Award for Defenders of Human Rights. The prize is granted annually to someone who has demonstrated an exceptional record of combating human rights violations by courageous and innovative means. PRI is proud to have been working with Mr Mbonimpa and APRODH in Burundi this year, providing training courses for prison staff and penitentiary police officers.

PRI attended the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation meeting in Warsaw, Poland on 26 and 27 September 2007 to encourage support for the draft resolution on a global moratorium on the death penalty which is due to be presented to the UN General Assembly in October. Gulnara Kaliakbarova, PRI’s Regional Director for Central Asia, gave an oral presentation to the plenary on behalf of Amnesty International, PRI, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. PRI, together with the aforementioned NGOs, also held a side meeting at the event. Participants were addressed by Joachim José Martinez, a former prisoner who spent four years on death row in Florida, USA after being wrongly convicted of murder. Speakers also included Zulfia Abdulla of Amnesty International and PRI's Gulnara Kaliakbarova.

The World Coalition against the Death Penalty has launched a petition to support an appeal for a worldwide moratorium on executions. Penal Reform International, as an active member of the Coalition, urges supporters of abolition, other organisations and the media to sign the petition and circulate it as widely as possible.

Following the five million people who signed the ‘Moratorium 2000’ petition launched by the Community of Sant’Egidio and Amnesty International, the petition invites all governments to work for a world free of executions and calls upon the member states of the UN General Assembly to overwhelmingly vote in favour of an international moratorium on executions.

The petition and further information including leaflets and other materials are available at:
http://www.worldcoalition.org/petitions/?petition=3