Our current projects in the South Caucasus include the following:
Reducing torture and ill-treatment through strengthening preventive mechanisms in Armenia and Georgia
This two-year project (July 2016–July 2018) is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aims to strengthen the legal and normative framework of detention monitoring bodies; build capacity through training and resources, in particular to improve follow-up by government authorities; and, in Armenia, raise public awareness of the problem of torture and the role of monitoring bodies to prevent it. Efforts will focus on the monitoring of prisons, but also on police and administrative detention facilities where oversight by independent monitors is particularly limited. PRI is implementing this project with the Civil Society Institute, Armenia.
Read a mid-term evaluation of this project, which assesses progress against the project’s three planned outcomes.
Increasing oversight over Georgia’s anti-torture commitments and compliance with international standards
Funded by the Open Society Foundation, this two-year project (October 2016–April 2018) aims to increase awareness of and compliance with the revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) in Georgia’s prisons, by reviewing legalisation and practice in terms of compliance with the Rules; monitoring the implementation of Georgia’s 2015–16 anti-torture National Action Plan and producing recommendations for a subsequent plan; and producing evaluative instruments and facilitating discussions with stakeholders on different risk factors and contexts that are conducive to ill-treatment.
Supporting the improvement of the service provision for women offenders in Georgia who have experienced violence and discrimination
This project (December 2016–February 2017), which is funded by the European Commission, aims to empower women offenders in Georgia who are subjected to violence and discrimination, and their vulnerable children, through improved access to support services.