Promoting Democracy and Human Rights Together: Spain-US-Latin America is the title of the seminar organised by Fundación Alternativas, the US Embassy and Casa de América, which will be held on Thursday 22 June from 9.30 a.m. at the headquarters of Casa de América.
Spain and the US have among their common priorities with the governments and societies of Latin America the improvement of democratic governance and the protection of human rights. The Latin American region has experienced an economic upswing, progress in development and has normalised its democratic processes. But alongside the great energy of its societies, citizen disaffection and cases of populist authoritarianism are causes for concern.
Given Spain’s good relations with the US government, together with the Spanish presidency of the EU and the important EU-CELAC summit, there is an opportunity to reflect on the current challenges and how to converge our lines of action in terms of democratic promotion, from an integral, social and shared perspective, based on the lessons learned from the past and recent times. This seminar will bring together prominent diplomats and experts to contribute to a diagnosis and common action on democracy, institutions and the defence of the human rights of Latin American citizens. Admission with prior registration at this link.
After the welcoming remarks, the seminar will begin at 10.10 a.m. with a round table discussion entitled: Democracy and development: converging visions, with the participation of Julissa Reynoso, United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, and Antón Leis, Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). This will be followed at 11:15 a.m. by a second event entitled Democracy, Rule of Law and the Social Contract: Together Against Authoritarianism, with interventions by Sergio Fausto, Director of the Fundación Henrique Cardoso (online intervention); Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Director of the Peter D. Bell Programme on the Rule of Law in the Inter-American Dialogue, and Esther del Campo, Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the UCM.
At 12.30 p.m., the seminar will culminate with the round table entitled Protecting Human Rights and Civil Society in Latin America, with the participation of Irune Aguirrezabal, Advisor to the Secretary General of the OEI; Carolina Jiménez, President of WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) (online intervention); Christina Fetterhoff, Director of Programmes at the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights, and Guillermo Sobalvarro Oporta, Nicaraguan activist.
The event will be closed at 13.30 by José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (to be confirmed).
