On 23 February 2017, Penal Reform International Central Asia, convened a press conference on ‘Prison reform in Kazakhstan: expectations and reality’. It coincided with the 10th anniversary of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, the UN detention monitoring body. PRI presented some trends in prison reform globally, and developments in Kazakhstan over the […]
In December 2016, Penal Reform International concluded a one-year project that was dedicated to pursuing a gender-specific criminal justice system in Georgia, in line with the UN Bangkok Rules. The work, funded by Open Society Georgia Foundation (OSGF), included advocacy and technical assistance to implement gender-specific approaches, in legislation, policy and practice. As part of […]
Photo: Miranda Merkviladze, PRI representative, giving a press interview at the meeting. PRI joined a three-day meeting convened by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna on 23-25 January 2017 to discuss the promotion of prison rehabilitation and reintegration. Experts from a number of regions and civil society representatives shared experiences and viewpoints on […]
Photo of Sir Nigel Rodley with PRI and other delegates at the Intergovernmental Expert Group on the revision of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners in Cape Town, 2015. Penal Reform International is deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, a founding member of the organisation, after he passed […]
Public Health England (PHE), in partnership with the World Health Organization Health in Prisons Programme (WHO HIPP), held its fourth annual international Health and Justice Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark from 3-4 November 2016. A meeting report of the conference is now available. The main aim of the conference was to share good practice on prison […]
Between 13 and 15 September, PRI’s Central Asia office hosted an International Symposium on the prevention of violence against children in closed institutions in Central Asia in Astana, Kazakhstan. Around two hundred delegates attended from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – penitentiary staff, judicial personnel, police, representatives from various child rights organisations (state and NGOs), as […]
Public Monitoring Committees from 13 regions – the highest number so far – have published a joint report detailing the results of 500 monitoring visits to penitentiary institutions in Kazakhstan. Over the past 10 years, Kazakhstan has delivered a number of important reforms to the criminal justice system. The introduction of a new Criminal Code and Criminal […]
At the end of June, PRI’s new Africa Office welcomed Directors or Probation and Community Service from all over the East African region to Kampala for the PRI’s ExTRA Project End-term Evaluation meeting. The project has focussed on community service as an alternative to imprisonment for petty offences and is now complete after two years of […]
Today is Nelson Mandela International Day, the first since the UN unanimously agreed a revised set of Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and decided the standards would be known as the ‘Nelson Mandela Rules’ to honour the legacy of the late South African President, a prisoner himself for 27 years and a committed advocate for […]
At the end of June, PRI Central Asia and the Penal Committee, Ministry of Interior, Kazakhstan, supported by the US embassy, jointly organised a roundtable to discuss strategies for preventing radicalisation in prisons. Data shows that the number of those convicted of violent extremist and terrorist crimes is growing everywhere. In Kazakhstan, currently more than 120 […]