Every day about 20 news stories pop in my email inbox, giving the latest headlines from around the world on prison and penal issues. Over the past couple of days, these include: ‘Epidemic of self-mutilation’ in women’s prisons in England and Wales’ ‘Inmates need needle-exchange programs and better access to HIV treatment: study’ (Canada) ‘Anti-torture […]
18th December 2013
Today – Human Rights Day (10 December 2013) – is a chance for organisations around the world to draw attention to both the continuing violations of peoples’ rights and the positive steps being made in protecting and respecting them. So it is appropriate that today PRI is in Kolkata, India, conducting a training of trainers’ workshop […]
10th December 2013
A new publication published today by PRI and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) addresses how detention monitoring bodies can help redress the balance between security and dignity in prisons. “Not only are prisons and human dignity compatible, they must be compatible.” Andrew Coyle, A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management. Dignity is […]
11th November 2013
‘Within detention facilities, there is usually a strict hierarchy, and those at the bottom of this hierarchy, such as (…) gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans-gender persons, suffer double or triple discrimination.’ This statement by the Special Rapporteur on Torture encapsulates the particular situation of vulnerability in which LGBTI detainees find themselves when deprived of their […]
30th October 2013
Responding to an invitation to participate in the 33rd Asian and Pacific Conference of Correctional Administrators (APCCA), from the office of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, I arrived in New Delhi on the morning of Tuesday 24th October in time for the formal opening of the Conference. The opening session included a […]
3rd October 2013
With the 22nd session of the Human Rights Council starting in Geneva today, the importance of protecting the valuable role of NGOs in international policy-making and ensuring the safety of human rights defenders is receiving a lot of attention. PRI’s programme officer, Olivia Rope, who made her first advocacy trip for PRI to Geneva last week, […]
25th February 2013
Upon return from Geneva, on Friday evening, my head was spinning from all the various issues I had discussed with so many different people from so many different institutions and the week felt much longer than five days, but at the same time the term had passed as with a snap of the fingers. It […]
11th March 2012