On June 4, 2020, the Auschwitz Institute’s Latin America Program participated in the launch event for the new Risk Monitoring and Prevention System for Human Rights Affectations in Colombia. The event was organized by the Research and Prosecution Unit of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Faculty of Political Sciences and Internal Relations of the Universidad Javeriana.
The discussion’s opening remarks were shared by Patricia Linares Prieto, President of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, Luis Fernando Múnera, Jesuit Priest and Dean of the School of Political Sciences and International Relations of the Pontifical Javeriana University , Giovanni Alvarez Unit of Investigation and Indictment of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, and Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Head of the United Nations Verification Mission for the Peace Agreement. Together, the speakers indicated the importance of the creation of the Risk Monitoring and Prevention System, as it reflects established best practices in terms of institutional articulation for the protection of people in vulnerable conditions.
The event’s first panel discussion was moderated by Sebastián Lippez, Director of the Department of Political Science of the Pontifical Javeriana University. He was joined by Diego García Sayán, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Judicial Independence and former President of Interamerican Court on Human Rights, Nadia Rubaii, Co-Director of I-GMAP (Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities) at Binghamton University, Andrei Gómez, Professor and Researcher at the University College of London, and Eugenia Carbone, Director of AIPG’s Latin America Program. In this segment, panelists had the opportunity to share perspectives on the effective contributions that this monitoring tool can make toward plans and policies for the prevention of mass atrocities and human rights violations across the country. Following this, the event concluded with a second panel of experts who addressed the conditions related to the safety of both victims and signatories to the Peace Agreement within the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
A recording of the event (in Spanish) is available on YouTube.