Philipp Meissner
Inter-regional Adviser, Penal and Prison Reform, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Austria
Philipp Meissner, Inter-Regional Adviser, serves as the focal point for prison and penal reform in the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Section of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), for which he has been working for the past 14 years.
During his tenure, he has focused on prison and penal reform efforts from different angles, including standard-setting, technical advisory services and the implementation of technical assistance projects. Importantly, he closely accompanied and supported the inter-governmental process to update the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which led to the adoption of the Nelson Mandela Rules by the UN General Assembly in 2015.
A major focus of his work relates to translating the Nelson Mandela Rules into practice-oriented guidance for prison and corrections officers and to service inter-governmental mechanisms of Member States with a shared interest in prison management issues, such as the Group of Friends of the Nelson Mandela Rules. Recent tools developed under his guidance include, inter alia, a checklist on assessing compliance with the Nelson Mandela Rules, the first scenario-based e-learning course on the Rules as well as a respective Model Prison Act.
Mr. Meissner also led UNODC efforts to address the manifestation of emerging challenges in the prison context. Next to the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in prisons, this also included the specific field of violent extremism in prisons, including the development of UNODC’s Handbook on the management of violent extremist prisoners and the prevention of radicalization to violence in prisons – the first manual dedicated to this topic at the level of the UN.
On behalf of UNODC and in close cooperation with the Department of Peace Operation (DPO) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Mr. Meissner co-led the development of the UN System Common Position on Incarceration. Endorsed in 2021, the Common Position serves as a joint UN framework to assist Member States in reducing over-incarceration and prison overcrowding; strengthening prison management and improving prison conditions; and advancing the rehabilitation and social reintegration prospects of offenders.
He provided technical advice to prison administrations on all continents and was involved in the design and implementation of numerous prison reform projects. Longer-term field assignments included, inter alia, the State of Palestine (UNODC / prison reform) and Cambodia (Khmer Rouge Tribunal / international criminal justice).
Mr. Meissner is a German national. He obtained a Master’s degree in political science from Freie Universität Berlin, with a focus on international (criminal) law, and is fluent in English, French and German.
