Omar Khan

Omar is a criminal justice professional and PhD candidate with more than a decade of specialist project management experience in complex multi-partner projects. Omar is the founder and director of Justice Focus, which aims to working with people with passion and compassion in justice systems all over the world, to become more functional, fair and financially viable. https://www.justicefocus.org/ 

He recently successfully led Penal Reform International's tri-country project to improve community-based alternatives to prison in East Africa and reconceptualised the model for engagement based on the evidence.

As a consultant, he has successfully delivered evaluations of projects for UNICEF, the Thailand Institute for Justice and DFID and conducted research for ICPR World Prison Brief. Most recently, Omar evaluated an innovative project in Kenya, which piloted adaptations to probation tools to implement a gender-sensitive approach. He also presented his findings at the British Society of Criminology's Annual Conference.

For five years, Omar worked for HM Prison Service and led departments across two London prisons as Head of Equality and Diversity. He trained staff, improved conditions for prisoners and conducted equality impact assessments.

Omar presented at the Second World Congress for Community Corrections and has attended expert meetings on the implementation of the new United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) with special interest in developing contexts. 

He has also given guest lectures at universities on behalf of the International Centre for Prison Studies at Essex University Human Rights Department, UK and Universidade Estadual Paulista (São Paulo State University), Brazil.