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Olivia Rope delivers keynote address at ICPA Annual Conference 2023

The International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) Annual Conference 2023 is taking place this week in Antwerp, Belgium, from 22-27 October 2023, hosted by the Belgian Prison Service. The theme of the conference is “Humane Corrections: What more can we do“, reflecting the need for a more humane approach to corrections and to identify new and […]

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Call for input: Violence and Health in Prison

As Secretariat of the Informal CSO Group on Health in Prison, Penal Reform International (PRI) is coordinating civil society input to inform an upcoming technical brief on violence and health in prison by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Please share any relevant research, initiatives, publications, or hyperlinks. Email your responses to tlenihan@penalreform.org […]

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Capacity building for correctional staff in the Philippines

In January-February 2023, PRI delivered a 3-week series of trainings in partnership with UNODC in the Philippines on the UN Nelson Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules, reaching 150 frontline jail and prison officers from Luzon, Visayas and Davao regions in the Philippines, in collaboration with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the […]

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Conference seeks to improve prevention and responses to deaths in prisons

On 2 and 3 November 2022, a group of academics, advocates, artists and prison monitors from different countries gathered in Oxford, England to discuss the challenges and stronger approaches to deaths in prisons. The conference was organised by the University of Nottingham and led by the PrisonDEATH team, with experts from diverse disciplines sharing their […]

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PRI at the UN Human Rights Council 50th session

The 50th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place in Geneva from 13 June to 8 July 2022. Over the past weeks, human rights experts, state and civil society representatives have highlighted human rights violations in criminal justice systems, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised groups, and have underlined the need to, among other […]

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Winners of the ‘Capstone Project’ research competition announced

Finalists of the ‘Capstone Project’ research competition, implemented by Penal Reform International (PRI) with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kazakhstan, presented their research projects on 14 July 2020. This year, due to the COVID-19 related restrictions in Kazakhstan, students of M.Utemissov West Kazakhstan State University presented their research […]

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People in detention are forgotten or ignored in COVID-19 responses, says new PRI briefing

A new briefing, Coronavirus: Preventing harm and human rights violations in criminal justice systems, highlights the impact of responses to COVID-19 on people in detention – amounting to 11 million people – who have been left behind, ignored or forgotten. Penal Reform International exposes a lack of systematic testing and data collection in prisons across the globe, which means unknown numbers of people in detention and staff are falling ill and dying […]

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Revised European Prison Rules provide greater human rights protection for people detained across the continent

Yesterday marked an important milestone for prison systems across Europe: the revised set of European Prison Rules (EPR) were adopted by the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) and Penal Reform International (PRI) welcome this important revision of the rules (and their commentary). It is instrumental that […]

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COVID-19 response: UN must seize opportunity to protect rights of people in prisons

Today the highest human rights body of the United Nations starts in session as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit countries around the globe and presents threats to the health and life of people in contact with criminal justice systems. First on the agenda is a presentation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, […]