On 25 February, PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, took part in a UN High Level General Assembly Thematic Debate on Integrating Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The aim of the discussion was to tackle the challenges for sustainable development posed by transnational crime organised crime, illicit trafficking and corruption. Most speakers […]
4th March 2015
In the ninth of our expert blog series, former UK prison governor and criminal justice expert, John Podmore, says that recognition that corruption is a widespread problem in prison systems – and subsequent action to tackle it – is long overdue. While we recognise that there is corruption in politics, business, sport and most other […]
25th January 2015
In early December PRI attended the 6th International Conference of the International Juvenile Justice Observatory, Making deprivation of children’s liberty a last resort – towards evidence-based policies on alternatives. The Conference, held over 2 days on 3–4 December, provided a very timely opportunity on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of […]
22nd December 2014
Today (20 November) the international community is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ratified by 194 countries worldwide, the CRC is the most widely supported treaty in international human rights history. It represents an unprecedented global commitment to address the particular needs of children, […]
20th November 2014
From petty bribery to large-scale misappropriation of funds, corruption is rife throughout the criminal justice process in many countries and has serious implications both for the human rights of detainees and the efficient administration of justice. While anecdotal evidence about corrupt activities is plentiful, more attention is now being paid by high-level bodies and by […]
27th October 2014
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 […]
25th September 2014
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 […]
25th August 2014
PRI’s Policy Director, Andrea Huber, looks at the some of the major trends – national, international, the good, the bad and the ugly – in criminal justice and penal policy over the last few years. This blog was first published by the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex. If there is a criminal […]
11th June 2014
An important step towards a revised set of the 1955 UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners as described by PRI’s Policy Director, Andrea Huber and Programme Officer, Olivia Rope who attended the third Expert Group Meeting on the revision process in Vienna last week. Last week Penal Reform International attended the 3rd Intergovernmental […]
1st April 2014
Becky Randel, PRI’s Research Assistant travelled to Geneva last week, with Nikhil Roy PRI’s Programme Development Director and Triona Lenihan PRI’s Policy Intern, to discuss, promote and engage with States on PRI’s programme of work relating to children deprived of their liberty. On Thursday 13 March, the Human Rights Council had its Annual Day on the […]
17th March 2014