Archive

Government, civil society and international experts gather in Kazakhstan, to discuss treatment of children in institutions

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 […]

Prison monitors in Kazakhstan publish annual report on human rights observance

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 […]

Delegates from across Africa discuss factors for successful community service as ExTRA project ends

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 […]

Mandela Day highlighted by leading international human rights experts

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 […]

Preventing radicalisation in prisons discussed at expert roundtable in Kazakhstan

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 […]

Panel on human rights of women in conflict with the law at the Human Rights Council

At an event organised on the side-lines of the 32nd Human Rights Council, the various human rights issues faced by women in conflict with the law were addressed by a panel of experts from member states, UN bodies and Penal Reform International. The Ambassador of Denmark, Carsten Steur, noted in his opening remarks that while […]

PRI at the UN Crime Commission 2016

The UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice will convene in Vienna on 23-27 May 2016. Held annually it is the principal policy-making body of the UN in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice and is therefore of key relevance to PRI’s mission. The Commission is the preparatory body for and implements many […]

Essex expert group meets to discuss the implementation of the newly adopted Nelson Mandela Rules

On 7-8 April 2016, PRI and the University of Essex Human Rights Centre hosted a meeting of criminal justice experts to review the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted as the Nelson Mandela Rules in December 2015. The experts identified legal, policy and operational issues that may arise for prison […]

Save the date: Briefing on the Nelson Mandela Rules, Geneva

Together with the Quaker UN Office (QUNO), and the Permanent Representations of Switzerland and Uruguay to the UN in Geneva, Penal Reform International invites delegates, representatives of NGOs and interested stakeholders to a briefing on 4 February 2015 in Geneva on the recently adopted revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the ‘Nelson Mandela […]

PRI opens new regional office in Kampala, Uganda

PRI is delighted to announce the opening of its new PRI Africa Office in January 2016. Based in Kampala, Uganda, the office will develop PRI’s expanding work in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. PRI has worked in partnership with criminal justice agencies and civil society in the sub-Saharan Africa region since the 1990s. Our work in […]