News & Announcements
Penal Reform International will contribute to a two-day workshop,organised by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, about the independence, impartiality and effectiveness of prison complaint mechanisms,10-11 November 2010,Budapest. The event is supported by the Open Society Institute.
Five years ago the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the United Kingdom’s wholesale exclusion of sentenced prisoners from the democratic process was unlawful. PRI welcomes the recent news that the UK government will amend its legislation and practice regarding restrictions on prisoners’ right to vote.
Penal Reform International welcomes the news that on 15 October 2010 the Third Committee (Social Humanitarian and Cultural) approved text recommending to the General Assembly the adoption of a resolution setting out United Nations standards for the treatment of women prisoners and non-custodial measures for women offenders, also known as the “Bangkok Rules”.
IHRA has released a new briefing written in partnership with Penal Reform International and Human Rights Watch 'The Death Penalty for Drug Offences and International Support for Drug Enforcement'. The purpose of this briefing is to highlight the dangers associated with funding drug control activities in countries with capital drug laws as detailed in IHRA’s report Complicity or Abolition?
Penal Reform International's Policy Director, Mary Murphy, participated in a conference organised by GTZ (the German government’s development agency), Bangladesh ministries and civil society legal aid organisations on 6 and 7 October 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This considered priorities for criminal justice reform in relation to the problem of overcrowding of prisons in South Asia and other parts of the developing world.