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A group of UN and regional human rights experts with mandates relating to detention and women’s rights today called on governments across the world to fully implement the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules). The Bangkok Rules were adopted by the UN General […]
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Penal Reform International (PRI) has announced the establishment of an Advisory Council and is honoured that eight distinguished experts have been elected as the first members. The Council will strengthen the organisation’s impact and networks to achieve PRI’s ambitions for 2020-2023. Hon’ble Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and […]
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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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Yesterday marked an important milestone for prison systems across Europe: the revised set of European Penitentiary 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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George Floyd’s killing in the United States city of Minneapolis in Minnesota has shed light on systemic racism within law enforcement agencies across the US. Such discrimination is a global problem, as we have documented in Global Prison Trends 2020, minority groups are over-represented in many criminal justice systems, seeing higher rates of arrest, pre-trial […]
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Prisons and justice systems are facing unprecedented challenges brought by the COVID-19 global pandemic. At this launch event for PRI’s new report Global Prison Trends 2020, international leaders and experts will address chronic issues that have led to this human rights and public health crisis with people in prison being so vulnerable – and critically, […]
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This year PRI is celebrating 30 years of accomplishments in developing and promoting fair and effective criminal justice systems across the world. Today, we set our trajectory for the coming decade, launching our new strategy for 2020-2023. The decade we are entering will determine whether the world is able to sustain and promote human rights, […]
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Alongside the Thailand Institute for Justice, PRI will launch the fifth edition of Global Prison Trends on Wednesday 21 May 2019, at the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Global Prison Trends outlines key developments and trends in the use and management of imprisonment worldwide. In 2019, the 52-page report will also contain […]
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Penal Reform International and the Vance Center are co-organising a conference on Women in prison: evidence, advocacy and reform, in Bogota from 5–7 September 2018. The conference will bring together 45 women prisoners’ rights advocates from the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe to share information about conditions of women’s imprisonment in their respective countries and regions and […]
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Yesterday, Penal Reform International hosted an expert panel event in London to mark the UK launch of Global Prison Trends 2018. Published last month, Global Prison Trends 2018 is the fourth edition in PRI’s annual flagship Global Prison Trends series. The panel event, which took place at Linklaters LLP, brought together experts to discuss the most urgent and emerging issues […]
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Today, PRI launches its annual flagship publication, Global Prison Trends 2018, at the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. Global Prison Trends 2018 is the fourth edition in PRI’s annual flagship Global Prison Trends series, and is published in collaboration with the Thailand Institute of Justice. It identifies topical developments and challenges in criminal justice and prison policy and practice over the past […]