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In addition to the six founding Altus members from Brazil, Chile, India, Nigeria, Russia, and the United States, the alliance includes two broad-based, international organizations as associate members: the Open Society Justice Initiative and Penal Reform International. Their involvement in Altus extends the reach of the alliance while giving these international organizations deeper knowledge of domestic justice reform in particular regions of the world.
The Open Society Justice Initiative
The Open Society Justice Initiative (the “Justice Initiative”) is an operational program of the Open Society Institute (“OSI”) that pursues transnational, rights-based law reform, and contributes to the development of legal capacity for open societies worldwide. The Justice Initiative designs and carries out its own projects, in partnership with, and to complement and enhance the efforts of, NGOs, governments, and OSI regional and national foundations. The Justice Initiative aims to bring about broad acceptance and effective implementation of international legal rules by mobilizing public opinion, political support, and legal actors.
In pursuit of this goal, the Justice Initiative employs a variety of tools, including litigation, advocacy, technical assistance, research, and monitoring to secure advances in the following priority areas: anticorruption, equality and citizenship, freedom of information and expression, international justice, and national criminal justice. The Justice Initiative’s approach to law reform is expressly transnational. We offer comparative advice and expertise, drawing upon a broad range of country and regional experience. Committed to the enforcement of international norms, we strive to shape reform initiatives that are driven by, and respond to, local demand and knowledge.
For more information about the Justice Initiative, visit the organization’s web site.
Penal Reform International
Founded in 1989, and registered in the Netherlands, Penal Reform International (PRI) is a nongovernmental organization with five regional offices around the world and members in more than 80 countries. The Chairperson is Dr. Rani Shankardass and Executive Director is Alison Hannah. PRI is organized regionally to promote implementation of international human rights standards and penal reform. The regional offices work with local and national NGOs, governments, and individuals who are committed to reforming their criminal justice and penal systems in line with international standards. Today PRI operates regional programs in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia.
PRI works at three levels: its regional offices carry out practical programmes of criminal justice and penal reform activies; it advocates for change, including the abolition of the death penalty and to reduce the over-use of imprisonment as a custodial sanction; and it provides information resources on good practice through its publications and website www.penalreform.org.. Regional programmes often involve assessing prison conditions and other justice institutions; providing advice, technical assistance, and training; and developing new programmes. Current projects focus on pre trial detention, community service and other alternatives to incarceration, monitoring and improving prison conditions, juvenile justice, and training police and prison service officials in human rights standards.
PRI works closely with the United Nations and various UN agencies, the Council of Europe, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and other international organizations to ensure that existing standards are maintained or improved and to monitor compliance with those standards.
For more information about PRI, visit the organization's web site.
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