NEW YORK, August 21, 2013 – On August 8, 2013, AIPR’s Executive Director Tibi Galis and Latin America Program Director Eugenia Carbone attended the Human Rights, Policing Function and Use of Force training program in Santiago, Chile, organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Human Rights Department of the Carabiniers of Chile . Attendees included regional Human Rights Department liaison officers, special unit officials, and police station personnel of the Carabiniers of Chile, the uniformed Chilean national police force and gendarmerie.
In his keynote address, Tibi Galis outlined contributions that the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention have made to institutionalizing mass atrocity prevention within Latin America, with a particular emphasis on policing issues. “In the development of Network, national initiatives were crucial in identifying actors with a central role in prevention,” said Galis. “Among these actors,” he continued, “the security forces are very important, especially given that their role in public protection has within its orbit a preventive role facilitated by their direct contact with the population in general and with vulnerable populations in particular.”
The program of the meeting was developed with contributions from UNICEF, ICRC, the Human Rights Department of the University of Chile, the Department of Human Rights of the Carabiniers of Chile, the Department of Immigration, Observatorio Ciudadano, the Public Defender’s Office, the Constitutional Tribunal, INDH, Corporacion Humanas, and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights of Santiago.