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PRI to host breakfast briefing on Global Prison Trends 2017
Next week, PRI will host a breakfast briefing to present analysis of global crime trends and the use of imprisonment, including emerging issues and challenges, from the Global Prison Trends 2017 report. The briefing, which will take place on Wednesday 25 October at the ICPA 2017 conference in London, will also look at the contribution […]
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PRI’s Central Asia office urges transfer of prison health services to the Ministry of Health in Kazakhstan
At a special session on health and the right to health services in closed institutions, held in Astana on 28 September 2017, PRI’s Central Asia (CA) office was invited by the Commission on Human Rights, under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, to deliver a co-report on behalf of civil society organisations on the […]
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PRI launches anti-corruption initiative in Kazakhstan
PRI’s office in Central Asia has launched a new project to develop government accountability and good governance in the law enforcement system in order to combat corruption in Kazakhstan. The project aims to improve mechanisms for increasing accountability and anti-corruption, and build interaction between the government and civil society. The project’s first working meeting was held […]
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PRI issues joint statement on the impact of the ‘war on drugs’ on human rights
This week Penal Reform International and the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) made a joint statement on drugs and human rights at the 36th Session of the Human Rights Council. The statement highlighted how a range of well-documented human-rights violations – such as increased police violence and mass incarceration of people involved in non-violent, low-level drug […]
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ODIHR and PRI preview upcoming guidance on international prison standards at joint event in Warsaw
The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Penal Reform International (PRI) presented a draft preview of their upcoming guidance document on revised international standards for the treatment of prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, at an event in Warsaw on 19 September 2017. The event took place on the margins […]
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ODIHR/PRI event highlights the need for human rights protection in prisons to counter radicalisation
Protecting human rights while countering violent extremism and radicalisation leading to terrorism (VERLT) in the prison context was the subject of a side event organised by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Penal Reform International (PRI) in Warsaw on 18 September 2017, during the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting […]
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Improving children’s closed institutions in Kazakhstan
At a national meeting held in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan to discuss and develop new approaches to improving children’s closed institutions, PRI’s Central Asia office agreed to draft a plan of transformation of educational services for children deprived of their liberty in the regions of Mangystau and Kyzylorda. The plan, which will be drafted with the support […]
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PRI to participate in OSCE’s 2017 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting
Penal Reform International (PRI) will be participating in the OSCE’s Human Dimension Implementation Meeting (HDIM) which will convene in Warsaw between 11 to 22 September 2017. At this year’s HDIM, PRI will be co-hosting three side-events, with a focus on the Mandela Rules, torture prevention and addressing violent extremism in prison. Details on side-events: The protection of […]
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Summer School on the UN Nelson Mandela Rules welcomed prison monitors from 20 countries
From 14–17 August 2017, PRI welcomed 21 detention monitors from 20 countries – the majority members and staff of National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) – for a Summer School on detention monitoring applying the UN Nelson Mandela Rules in Bristol, UK. The Summer School was the second training event organised by PRI and the Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of […]
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Strengthening monitoring of psychiatric institutions in South Caucasus
Last month, PRI’s South Caucasus office conducted training in Armenia for members of Armenian and Georgian National Preventive Mechanisms (NPMs) on the monitoring of psychiatric institutions. Independent police and prison monitoring boards operating in Armenia also attended. The training, which was led by Vladimir Ortakov, a psychiatrist and former member and Vice-President of the Committee for the […]