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Spotlight:
The importance of penal reform in Central African Republic in times of COVID-19 / L'importance de la réforme pénale en Centrafrique en temps de COVID-19
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PRI's Project Manager in Central African Republic, Oscar Ouedraogo, and PRI's Executive Director, Florian Irminger, talk about the role of PRI in reforming Central African Republic's penitentiary system. / Oscar Ouedraogo, Chef de Projet pour PRI en Centrafrique, et Florian Irminger, Directeur Exécutif de PRI, parlent du rôle de PRI dans la réforme du systeme pénitentiaire en Centrafrique.
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PRI has been working alongside United Nations peacekeeping mission MINUSCA since 2017 to reform the penitentiary system in Central African Republic. In our latest blog, we highlight the importance of such action in times of COVID-19. Central African Republic has been caught up in a conflict in between armed groups and government authorities for years and is thus particularly vulnerable in light of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to PRI’s intervention, places of detention in the country were solely managed by untrained military staff. To date, they remain underfunded, dangerously overcrowded, and failing to meet international human rights standards. As we continue our efforts to achieve complete demilitarisation of the penitentiary system in the country, we take action on the field to equip places of detention with the necessary tools and skills to prevent the spread of the virus.
PRI travaille aux cotés de la mission des Nations Unies au maintien de la paix MINUSCA afin de réformer le système pénitentiaire en Centrafrique depuis 2017. Dans notre dernier blog, nous soulignons l’importance de cette action en temps de COVID-19. La Centrafrique, en proie à un conflit opposant groupes armés et autorités gouvernementales depuis des années, est particulièrement vulnérable face à la pandémie de coronavirus qui sévit. Les établissements pénitentiaires du pays, il y a peu encore dirigés uniquement par un personnel militaire non-formé, restent à l’heure actuelle sous-financés, dangereusement surpeuplés, et faillent à remplir les conditions établies par les normes internationales de droits humains en terme de soins, d’hygiène, et de nourriture. Tout en poursuivant nos efforts pour parvenir à une démilitarisation complète du système pénitentiaire en Centrafrique, nous agissons sur le terrain afin d’équiper au mieux les établissements pénitentiaires du pays avec le savoir-faire et les outils nécessaires à la prévention de la propagation du virus.
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PRI's annual review for 2019 now available: read about our achievements and successes
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In our latest Annual Report, we look back on our main 2019 achievements, including:
- In cooperation with the Burkina Faso Penitentiary Service, we trained civilian prison staff in Central African Republic who will go on to train a new cohort of 300 civilian prison officers .
- We reactivated a network of civil society organisations called the Alliance for Penal and Probation Reforms in Georgia to coordinate policy and advocacy responses to government planned reforms of the criminal justice system.
- In Uganda, we delivered a number of training courses for prison staff and high-level officials to prevent torture and ill-treatment as well as promote the application of fair and effective criminal investigations and trials of people detained.
- In Central Asia, we strengthened the capacity of government officials, with 150 attendees at the Central Asian Dialogue Conference in Almaty in October exchanging best practice and developing recommendations for the promotion of alternatives measures to detention in the region.
- We improved the capability of the female police unit in Yemen through a roundtable attended by top representatives of the Interior Ministry, the head of the female police unit, and the Human Rights Minister, who highlighted the importance of such a unit to end gender-based discrimination in criminal justice systems.
- We celebrated our 30th anniversary and launched a new strategy for 2020-2023.
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Commentary to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Kyrgyz Republic now available online
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PRI, in cooperation with the UNICEF in Kyrgyzstan and PF “Legal Centre”, developed the Commentary to the Criminal Procedure Code of the Kyrgyz Republic, along with comments to other legislative acts, to ensure the sustainability of measures aimed to improve the professional capacity of lawyers.
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Winners of the ‘Capstone Project’ research competition announced
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Finalists of the ‘Capstone Project’ research competition, implemented by Penal Reform International (PRI) with the support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Kazakhstan, presented their research projects on 14 July 2020.
Congratulations to winners on The Most Topical Issue: Aldiyar Bikeyev, Irina Karasseva, and Anastasiya Badeyeva; The Most Innovative Idea: Alina Krivoruchko, Aqnur Oralbayeva, and Andrey Komissarenko; Best Speakers Elmira Isterekova and Quandyq Izbassarov; as well as Winning Team 2's Alina Zhumartova, Gulnara Zubchenko and Aynara Kulymzhan.
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"A crisis within a crisis" - Prison, Violence, and Social Protest in Times of the Pandemic in Colombia
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In this expert blog for PRI, Sofía Forero Alba and Juan Sebastián Hernández, researchers at Dejusticia, reflect on the concoction of high levels of prison overcrowding, inadequate healthcare and lack of basic provisions such as water, which have led to violence and unrest during the coronavirus pandemic in Colombia. They explain how the government has not only failed to protect people in prison from the coronavirus, but responded to their pleas for help with violence and dismissal.
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Una crisis dentro de la crisis: cárceles, violencia y protesta social en tiempos de pandemia en Colombia
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En Colombia, la mezcla de altos niveles de hacinamiento en las cárceles, la deficiencia de los servicios de salud y la falta de acceso a bienes y servicios básicos como el agua han provocado violencia y disturbios durante la pandemia del coronavirus. En este blog, investigadores de Dejusticia explican cómo el gobierno no solo no ha logrado proteger a las personas privadas de la libertad del contagio masivo de COVID-19, sino que ha respondido a sus súplicas de ayuda con violencia y rechazo. |
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Global Prison Trends: Blog series
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In the fourth expert blog of our series exploring the trends documented in Global Prison Trends 2020, Catherine Heard, Director of the World Prison Research Programme at the Institute for Crime & Justice Policy Research, explores sentencing trends (and disparities) based on a study of ten countries: Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, New York State, India, Thailand, England & Wales, Hungary, the Netherlands, and New South Wales, Australia.
The study examines three hypothetical offence scenarios (burglary, drug importation, and intentional homicide) and how they would be dealt with in these ten jurisdictions, with the most striking disparities being outlined in the blog.
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PRI needs your support
In these difficult times for organisations everywhere, we are doing our best to keep providing you with quality, informative materials on criminal justice systems worldwide and on how they respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Around the world, our dedicated staff are pushing for governmental reforms, providing emergency response, and fighting for the human rights of the millions of people in places of detention worldwide. We hope that you find our regular updates informative and interesting, and we are thankful for our ever growing audience. We are proud to be part of a fast-thinking, engaged community. Please support our hard work even further by making a donation today.
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