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Regional conference on justice-affected women in Africa held in Kampala

From 18-20 October 2023, Penal Reform International (PRI) in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Uganda Prison Service (UPS), Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) and with the financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Embassy of France in Uganda, organised a regional conference on the […]

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Training workshop on gender mainstreaming in the criminal justice sector

Doreen Namyalo Kyazze, PRI Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, presenting at training workshop. On the 17-19th July, a training workshop on gender mainstreaming was held with officers of the Directorate of Public Prosectution at the Rosewood Hotel, Mbale in Uganda. The aim of the workshop was to improve access to justice for women in the […]

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Training for income-generating agricultural activities in CAR

Penal Reform International, as part of our work with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSCA) supporting the national strategy for demilitarising prisons in Central African Republic (CAR), has assisted the Ministry of Justice in partnering with the Central African Agricultural Development Agency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The goal of this […]

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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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Women in prison trained in business skills receive startup capital in Uganda

On 13 June, 26 women from Mbale Women’s Prison were certified in small business management. The women, who had completed one month’s training in business development, entrepreneurship and strategic business planning, also received startup capital ranging from Shs3m to Shs7m, to launch their own business to support themselves and their families upon release. At the ceremony, one of the beneficiaries said, “When I was […]

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Ceremony held to mark end of vocational training programme in three Central African prisons

As part of our support to the Central African Ministry of Justice for the implementation of the national strategy for the demilitarization of the CAR’s prisons, Penal Reform International, as implementing partner of MINUSCA initiated and organised a vocational training for people detained in Ngaragba, Bimbo and Berberati prisons in CAR. The objectives of this […]

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Advisory Council established with distinguished experts appointed to support PRI’s work

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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Florian Irminger resigns from PRI as Executive Director

Penal Reform International (PRI) regrets to announce that Florian Irminger has chosen to resign as Executive Director from the end of October 2020. Florian will be taking up the position of Secretary General of the Green Party in Switzerland. Florian Irminger commented: ‘I have a high esteem for PRI’s work, am grateful to have been […]

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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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UN Human Rights Council takes action to tackle racism and police brutality

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 […]