The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, of which Penal Reform International is a member, has produced a detailed report on the strategies, arguments and perspectives for a universal moratorium on the use of the death penalty. The report emphasises the important and necessary role which a moratorium can play in advancing universal abolition.

This report is being released just before the 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Geneva (24-26 February 2010). The 4th World Congress, organised by ECPM in partnership with the World Coalition, will assemble abolitionists from around the world and give them the opportunity to canvass ideas and strategies for eliminating the death penalty. It will largely deal with the moratorium issue as a step towards total abolition.

The Interagency Panel on Juvenile Justice (IPJJ) Secretariat has prepared a compilation entitled "Extracts from the Committee on the Rights of the Child Concluding Observations, 53rd Session: Recommendations relating to Juvenile Justice".

The compilation provides extracts of the recommendations on matters of relevance to juvenile justice reform, including: the right to life and survival; torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; corporal punishment, abuse and neglect; administration of juvenile justice and justice in matters involving child victims and witnesses of crime. The compilation also includes specific recommendations under the two Optional Protocols relating to the protection of children by the justice system, rehabilitation and social reintegration.

The 4th World Congress Against the Death Penalty will be held in Geneva, 24-26 February 2010.

For further details see Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort

PRI is hosting an international conference together with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the OSCE centre in Astana, and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The event will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, on 15-16 February 2010 and marks the end of PRI’s project on torture prevention. The conference will focus on how the government of Kazakhstan can safeguard its citizens from ill-treatment in prisons and other places of detention.