Resources listing

Briefing

The unintended negative consequences of the ‘war on drugs’

Criminalisation of drug users, excessive levels of imprisonment, and punitive sentencing practices, including mandatory sentencing, the death penalty and enforced ‘drug detention centres’, are some of the unintended negative consequences of the 50 year ‘war on drugs’, a policy with direct impact on the vulnerable, poor and socially excluded groups, including ethnic minorities and women. This PRI briefing paper discusses these consequences […]

Languages: English

Submission

Statement to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, March 2013: The unintended negative consequences of the ‘war on drugs’

PRI delivered a statement in a panel session – ‘The Legalisation of drugs: can it help curb organised crime?’ at the 128th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Quito, Ecuador in March 2013. The statement flags the often disproportionate criminalisation, with little differentiation between use and possession on one end of the scale and large-scale commercial […]

Languages: English

International Standard

Key standards and norms on conditions in detention and the treatment of detainees, including health and solitary confinement

Key standards and norms covering conditions in detention and the treatment of detainees include: General International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights UN Convention on the Rights of the Child UN Convention against Torture UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities UN Standard Minimum Rules for […]

Languages:

Submission

Independent experts’ meeting on the review of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the ‘Essex Paper’)

The ‘Essex Paper’ is the outcome of an independent experts’ meeting on the revision of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMR).  It was submitted by PRI and Essex University to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime ahead of the 2nd Intergovernmental Expert Group Meeting (IEGM) on the in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 11-13 […]

Languages: Arabic, English, French, Russian, Spanish

Submission

Joint oral statement to the Human Rights Council: Children deprived of their liberty, March 2012

PRI, in conjunction with OSJI and IJJO, submitted an oral statement to the Council highlighting the impact of extensive periods of pre-trial detention on the social and mental development of juveniles and increasing prevalence of mental health problems amongst juveniles in contact with the criminal justice system. During the afternoon session of the meeting Dr. […]

Languages: English

Briefing

Women’s health needs in pre-trial detention

In October 2011 PRI’s Executive Director, Alison Hannah, contributed to an expert meeting in Vienna to develop a tool to assist independent monitoring groups with assessing illness and health risk in pre-trial detention.  The meeting, convened by the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program and Open Society Justice Initiative, examined ways to support independent monitoring […]

Languages: English