Blog

Uganda still needs stronger child protection mechanisms

Denis Angeri of Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) Uganda, praises the commitment of the Ugandan government to children’s rights but says that much more needs to be done to protect children in conflict with the law. In particular, stronger measures are needed to protect the growing number of street children who should be protected but are frequently rounded […]

Denis Angeri, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Uganda3rd October 2014

Old age behind bars: how can prisons adapt to the needs of increasingly elderly populations?

In many countries around the world, the number of older people in prison is growing fast. In the fifth expert blog in our anniversary series, Bridget Sleap, Senior Rights Policy Adviser at HelpAge International, outlines some of the challenges that older prisoners face in prisons, which – whether in terms of their lay-out, regime, healthcare […]

Bridget Sleap, HelpAge International25th September 2014

Women in prison: Information vacuums, harms and human rights

This is one of a series of posts by Jo Baker on her research last year among women’s prisons and prison communities in Albania, Guatemala, Jordan, the Philippines and Zambia, with DIGNITY, the Danish Institute Against Torture, now published as a report. Although women face many risks and problems in prison, they may be less likely […]

Jo Baker22nd September 2014

Measures urgently needed to address widespread torture of suspects and detainees in Cambodia

In June 2014, LICADHO – the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights – released a report detailing widespread abuse of suspects and prisoners. Here, Naly Pilorge, Director of LICADHO, calls for the government to act on its commitment to address torture, including for the establishment of an independent National Preventive Mechanism. On 20 June 2014, during […]

Naly Pilorge17th September 2014

How should we treat juveniles who commit the most serious crimes? A view from India

The terrible gang rape of a student in New Delhi in December 2012 has provoked fierce debate about the treatment of juvenile offenders who commit serious violent crimes in India over the last 18 months. In July 2013, the Supreme Court rejected petitions to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 16 following a campaign […]

Nikhil Roy27th August 2014

Out of balance: disproportionality in sentencing

Courts have started to consider whole life sentences without the possibility of parole to be in breach of the prohibition on inhuman and degrading punishment. But what about ordinary prison sentences? In the fourth blog in our anniversary series, Dr Mary Rogan, Head of Law at Dublin Institute of Technology and Chair of the Irish Penal […]

Dr Mary Rogan25th August 2014

Go and suffer this: the enduring impact of death row and wrongful conviction

Oliver Robertson, PRI’s death penalty and alternatives project manager, was in Africa from late June to meet with our partners Foundation for Human Rights Initiative in Uganda and to attend a Continental Conference in Benin on death penalty abolition in Africa. The death penalty is often handed down in situations where trial procedures are certainly […]

Oliver Robertson24th July 2014

How to build for success: prison design and infrastructure as a tool for rehabilitation

In the third blog of our anniversary series, Marayca Lopez i Ferrer, Senior Corrections Analyst and Planner at US firm CGL/Ricci Greene Associates, explores how forward-thinking architects are moving away from classical models of prison architecture – high perimeter razor-wire topped fences, gloomy undersized concrete cells along narrow corridors – to experiment with innovative spatial concepts […]

Dr Marayca López24th July 2014

Protecting girls from all forms of violence in the criminal justice system

PRI has been working with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Violence against Children, Marta Santos Pais, to raise awareness and bring about changes in the treatment of girls in the criminal justice system. In this blog she explains how the new Model Strategies and Practical Measures for the Elimination of Violence against […]

Marta Santos Pais15th July 2014

Kyrgyzstan: progress towards a more humane criminal justice system

Currently PRI Central Asia is implementing a project to humanise the criminal justice systems of Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan through establishing criminal legislative codes in line with international human rights standards. PRI along with local partners (Golos Svobody in Kyrgyz Republic and Human Rights Center in Tajikistan) organised expert meetings, workshops for local civil society […]

Dinara Dildabek2nd July 2014