Advancing the global conversation around the death penalty
The Centre for Criminology is delighted to continue to partner with justice reformer and philanthropist Lady Edwina Grosvenor, to advance the important work of the Death Penalty Research Unit (DPRU).
Lady Edwina’s renewed philanthropic support will help the DPRU continue to advance its mission of leading evidence-based research and international engagement around the death penalty. Her previous support has helped the DPRU to produce academic research on the administration of the death penalty and rationales for its retention in countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
The DPRU has worked with its partner organisation the Death Penalty Project, drawing on legal strategy, capacity building, empirical research and high-level dialogue and advocacy, in collaboration with stakeholders including diplomats, local lawyers, politicians and civil society organisations, to bring about abolition in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe in recent years.
Lady Edwina’s crucial support enabled the establishment of the DPRU. Crucially, this enabled the recruitment of a Project Manager, who has also conducted research and supported engagement work - including assisting with the preparation of reports for the United Nations and expert evidence for constitutional challenges to the death penalty.
Carolyn Hoyle, Director of the DPRU and Professor of Criminology in the Faculty of Law, said: “We are enormously grateful to Lady Edwina Grosvenor for her renewed support of our work in the DPRU. Her generosity will enable us to continue to advance our collaborative research around the world, ensuring our work meaningfully engages with governments, civil society, legal practitioners and individuals facing the death penalty.”
Lady Edwina said: The global work of the DPRU is not only exciting but it’s also vital. I am so pleased to see the impact they are having in different countries, some of whom have abolished the death penalty and some who are now considering it. This is such important work and progress is being made.
Through its world-leading research – including the work of the DPRU – Oxford’s Faculty of Law is addressing key social, environmental and technological questions, exploring both the opportunities and the risks they present. As home to the largest legal doctoral programme in the common law world, the Faculty is nurturing the leaders of the future, and its researchers at all career stages are shaping responses to global challenges through innovative, impactful scholarship in collaboration with public funders, philanthropists and global partners.