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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
PRI’s Middle East and North Africa office (MENA), in partnership with the National Council for Human Rights, last month organised a training workshop for police in Bejaia, Algeria, on the rights of accused persons in the criminal justice system. The workshop aimed to increase the participants’ skills and knowledge of international standards and good practice in […]
With support from the British High Commission in Uganda, last week PRI’s office in Sub-Saharan Africa conducted training for prison staff on the management of vulnerable prisoners, including the mentally ill, disabled prisoners and the elderly. The two-day workshop, which was held in Kampala, provided training for 18 prison staff. The training included an overview of […]