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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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 […]
In November, PRI’s partner NGO in Pakistan, the DOST Welfare Foundation, which works in the north western border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, trained 48 law students, 21 faculty members of local Law Colleges, and 30 NGO representatives from Peshawar on the UN Bangkok Rules on women offenders and prisoners. The prison population in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa […]
Ronald is 13 years old. He has no contact at all with his parents both of whom are in prison. In the future he wishes to study very hard so that he is able to get his parents out of prison. Dalius is 10 years. His mother is in prison. He feels sad about his mother […]
PRI is sad to note the death of Al (Alvin) Bronstein, a dedicated prison reformer and long-serving PRI Board Member and Honorary President. Baroness Vivien Stern, a founding member of PRI and fellow Honorary President, worked alongside Al at PRI for many years, and pays tribute to him here. Around the world prison reformers and civil rights activists […]