At the European level, we work on agenda-setting and influencing the relevant decision-making bodies of the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) – both in terms of their internal policies for member states and as important actors in the international field.
EU guidelines are a strong political signal of its priorities of human rights policy vis-à-vis third countries, outlining the EU’s policy and providing an operational tool to be used in contact with third countries at all levels as well as in multilateral human rights fora. The EU Guidelines on the Death Penalty and EU Guidelines on Torture and other Cruel Treatment are of particular importance to our work.
Similarly, CoE conventions and recommendations, as well as annually collected penal statistics (SPACE reports), call on and support member states and third countries to bring human rights and the rule of law to life in national practices and legislation, with the aim of “promoting more humane and socially effective penal sanctions.” Key standards include the CoE Probation Rules and the European Prison Rules, on which PRI has developed practical guidance together with the CoE.
PRI has consultative status at the Council of Europe, including observer status at the Council for Penological Co-operation (PC-CP), and contributes through information sharing and agenda-setting for EU human rights dialogues with third countries to ensure that criminal justice and human rights in places of detention are included in these important discussions.
PRI is a member of the civil society network, Human Rights and Democracy Network (HRDN) which is a network of over 50 European NGOs working on human rights, democracy and peacebuilding operating at the EU level.