PRI participate in Council of Europe Seminar in Ukraine on the prevention of ill treatment in places of detention.
PRI’s programme development director, Nikhil Roy, was invited by the Council of Europe as an expert speaker at two seminars on ‘European standards and safeguards for protection of prisoners’ rights and obligations of prison staff, including the prevention of ill-treatment in the places of deprivation of liberties’, held in Kyiv on the 17/18th November and 1/2nd December 2011.
The two seminars involved 90 participants including senior personnel from the prison service and monitoring committees in Ukraine.
PRI’s first presentation focused on international standards for preventing and combating ill-treatment of prisoners, and aimed to encourage delegates to think about whether or not Ukraine is fulfilling relevant international standards.
Our second presentation focused on the independent monitoring of human rights in places of imprisonment. The UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture and ill treatment visited Ukraine in May. If the report is published, it will provide an assessment of how well the country is doing in regard to torture prevention and identify further areas for improvement.