2024 saw us celebrate our 25th anniversary. Over those last 25 years we have won significant battles against abusive state power, and 2024 was no exception.
In our casework we successfully prevented death sentences and executions in countries from Malaysia to the United States, while helping secure the release of clients from arbitrary detention in the desert camps of North East Syria and the US prison facility in Guantánamo Bay. We also used insight gathered from our casework to challenge systemic injustices: revealing for the first time that Black prisoners in the US have 220% higher odds of suffering a botched execution, and deploying our findings on executions in Saudi Arabia to help defeat the Kingdom’s bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. Throughout 2024 we needed to be agile and responsive in the face of enormous global upheaval.
The election of President Trump represents a handbrake turn to progress on many of our issues, as we have learned from the flurry of executive orders issued in the very first days of his administration. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria in December will impact our work on the arbitrary detention of 56,000 people detained – more than half of them children – in facilities in North East Syria.
Elections and political turmoil in Pakistan continue to impact our work, where we are closely following implementation of the abolition of the death penalty for drugs – a huge milestone from 2023.
Our response to these challenges will be powered by our incredible partners across the world – a truly global network of lawyers, investigators, and campaigners. We are also proud to have the pro bono support of
international law firms, working together to build formidable partnerships, greater than the sum of their parts. Together, we will rise to the profound challenges that lie ahead.
Finally, a note on the financial challenges facing the charity sector, including Reprieve. The need for our work is growing, and at the same time, we are seeing a sector-wide decline in individual and regular giving, as people understandably are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis and are making tough choices about how they spend their money. Institutional human rights funding is under strain, and will continue to be as the world becomes more hostile. We are proud of our diversified funding model, which has enabled us to weather the storm, but we are not immune to the challenges. We are actively working to secure long-term giving, which matches our ambition to pursue long-term strategic work. This year, we were incredibly honoured to receive a significant legacy from a long-term supporter. We will ensure that his generosity and commitment to justice will live on in our work for many years to come, thanks to this incredible gift. We are grateful to everyone who chooses to remember Reprieve in their will. We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our dedicated staff, fellows,
consultants, partners, lawyers, campaigners, investigators, supporters and funders for standing alongside Reprieve this year. This report details our collective successes in 2024. Fighting for systemic change is never the easy option, and we are grateful for your partnership and support. Thank you.
Anna Yearley OBE and Maya Foa
Joint Executive Directors
