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 Rope was appointed as Executive Director of Penal Reform International in 2020, having joined the organisation in 2012 and previously leading on policy and international advocacy. She is an expert on a range of human rights and criminal justice issues, having 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. 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 been active in the field of human rights for many years, including working for PRI in the region since 2010. She holds an LLM in International Human Rights from the University of Essex and has 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 Director for Sub-Saharan Africa
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Doreen is PRI’s Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa. She has extensive 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 joined PRI in 2010 and 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, having also worked with PRI in 2013-14. She leads the development of key resources to support the implementation of international standards, and the implementation of PRI’s policy programme and advocacy objectives set out in the strategy for 2020-2023. 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 also worked with the Irish Penal Reform Trust. She holds a Law degree and LLM in International Human Rights Law and Public Policy from University College Cork, Ireland, and is based in London, UK.
Oscar Arzouma Ouedraogo
Project Manager Central African Republic (CAR)
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Oscar has been managing PRI’s UN-funded demilitarization of the prisons project in CAR since early 2019, prior to which, Oscar worked as a corrections officer for the UN in CAR from 2014 to 2018. From 2008-2014 he worked for the Ministry of Justice in Burkina Faso in various roles including human resources director for the national penitentiary system, peacekeeping missions’ office manager, deputy director of Ouagadougou detention centre, and security and field operations manager. Oscar holds a Masters’ Degree in Law from the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and a diploma in penitentiary security from the national police training centre in Ougadougou.