The Death Penalty Project’s Co-Executive Directors Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar appointed to the House of Lords

The Death Penalty Project’s Co-Founders and Co-Executive Directors, Saul Lehrfreund MBE and Parvais Jabbar MBE, have been appointed to the House of Lords as life peers. Their appointments recognise more than three decades of leadership and advocacy dedicated to defending the rights of some of the world’s most marginalised people, advancing access to justice and challenging the use of the death penalty and other cruel punishments across the globe.

Since founding The Death Penalty Project (DPP) in the 1990s, Saul and Parvais have built a leading international legal action organisation working at the forefront of criminal justice reform and the global movement to end capital punishment.

Under their leadership, our legal work has prevented thousands of individuals from being executed, brought strategic litigation to restrict the use of the death penalty and strengthen fundamental human rights protections for people facing capital charges.

Alongside this legal action, our research has shed light on public attitudes towards the death penalty, challenged misconceptions about crime and punishment and informed policy debates in countries across Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. By combining rigorous research with high-level policy engagement, the organisation has contributed to abolition of the death penalty in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Zimbabwe in the last five years alone.

Central to our success has been a steadfast commitment to working in partnership with legal professionals, academics, civil society organisations and policymakers across the UK and around the world. This appointment is a personal honour for Saul and Parvais, but it also reflects the collective efforts of the many colleagues and collaborators who have contributed to their work over the past three decades. Most importantly, Simons Muirhead Burton, the London-based law firm where this work first began, has been a vital supporter of DPP since its inception. Through its continued financial, administrative and broader support, the firm has played a pivotal role in DPP’s development and ongoing success.

Saul and Parvais will bring their extensive expertise in human rights, criminal justice and international law to parliamentary debate and scrutiny. The values that they have championed since the foundation of DPP – respect for human dignity, access to justice and the belief that no person should be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment – will continue to shape both their work in Parliament and the organisation’s mission.

Simon Goldberg, Board member of the The Death Penalty Project and Senior Partner of Simons Muirhead Burton LLP, said:

Everyone at The Death Penalty Project and Simons Muirhead Burton congratulates Saul and Parvais on this well-deserved recognition of their decades-long dedication to supporting individuals facing the cruelty of the death penalty and ending capital punishment for good. It has been an honour and a privilege to see how the organisation has, under their watch and leadership, grown in size and impact, and we look forward to continuing our shared work to protect human rights and advance justice around the world.