Penal Reform International has many inspiring speakers available to speak on a variety of topics related to criminal justice, including amongst its Board members. Please contact us to identify a speaker.

PRI’s spokespeople:

Olivia Rope
Executive Director
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Olivia was appointed as Executive Director in 2020, having joined PRI in 2012 and previously leading on policy-setting bodies, advocacy with international mechanisms and on a range of human rights and criminal justice issues, acting as spokesperson for the organisation internationally. Olivia has authored key publications and training materials for PRI and worked extensively with UN and other institutional actors and partners. Previously, Olivia worked at Amnesty International in their European Union office in Brussels and in their New Zealand section. She completed her LLM in International and European Human Rights Law at the University of Amsterdam in 2008 and was admitted to the High Court of New Zealand as a Barrister and Solicitor in 2009.

Taghreed Jaber
Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa
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Taghreed is the Regional Director for PRI in the Middle East and North Africa. She has 20 years of experience working in the field of human rights, 12 of them working for PRI in the region. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights form University of Essex and has a vast experience leading criminal justice reform projects in more than 16 countries in the region.

Tsira Chanturia
Regional Director for South Caucasus
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Tsira has been serving as Regional Director for PRI in the South Caucasus region since early 2010. She is a member of the Consultative Council for National Preventive Mechanism at the Public Defender’s Office of Georgia since 2016. She is a member of the Criminal Justice Reform Interagency Coordination Council and its working groups, also a member on the Anti-torture Interagency Coordination Council at the Ministry of Justice of Georgia, and has served on selection committees of the penitentiary department and the National Probation Agency. Tsira is a lawyer by training and also holds a master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from the University of York in the United Kingdom.

Doreen Namyalo Kyazze
Regional Programme Manager for Africa
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Doreen is PRI’s Africa Programme Manager. She has over 14 years’ experience in human rights advocacy in East Africa. She has served as project manager and legal expert on a number of human rights projects in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda including death penalty campaign, promotion of gender sensitive sentencing, alternatives to imprisonment; torture prevention; and prison reform. Doreen Namyalo is a member of the Uganda Law Society and Federation of Uganda Women Lawyers.

Zhanna Nazarova
Regional Programme Manager for Central Asia
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Zhanna is PRI’s Regional Programme Manager for Central Asia. As PRI’s representative in the region, she manages country and cross-regional projects. Zhanna is also a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, member of the Coordination Council of the NPM under the Ombudsperson of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Working Group on prison reform in Kazakhstan. Zhanna started her work in PRI in 2010. She previously held positions in local municipalities. Zhanna Nazarova holds degrees Public Administration and Law, with a Master’s Degree in Criminal Executive Law.

Tríona Lenihan
Policy and International Advocacy Manager
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Tríona joined PRI as Policy and International Advocacy Manager in September 2020 to lead the implementation of PRI’s policy programme and advocacy objectives set out in the new strategy for 2020-2023, having also worked with PRI in 2013-14. Tríona previously worked with the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, where she led advocacy, campaigning and technical assistance in the Americas and Caribbean, and with the Irish Penal Reform Trust. She holds a BCL and LLM in International Human Rights Law and Public Policy from University College Cork, Ireland, and is based in London, UK.