Latin American and Caribbean Civil Society Forum: Fifth Workshop on Regional Responses

The Stanley Center for Peace and Security and La Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES), co-organizers of the Latin American and Caribbean Forum of Civil Society for the Prevention of Mass Atrocities, co-convenes the Fifth Workshop of Regional Responses on December 11–13, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Faced with the current regional context of change, crisis, and transition, this workshop expands the participation of experts and take advantage of our discussions and recommendations made on the crisis in Venezuela to include analysis of regional developments, including events in Central and South America. The agenda pays particular attention to gender, the reduction of civic spaces, and the militarization of security. The objective covers dynamics that have repercussions at local, regional, and international levels in order to generate joint strategies that allow responses to the coordination challenges between civil society, governments, and multilateral organizations.

The crises at the political, economic, and institutional level that the countries of the region are going through has generated serious repercussions beyond their own borders. The sharpening of pre-existing trends at the regional level, as well as the emergence of new dynamics, have resulted in the escalation of violence, violation of human rights, forced human mobility, and lack of guarantee of essential goods and services for civil society. Thus, it becomes a priority to redesign and implement strategies at the regional level to address these threats that put regional stability at risk and that undermine the well-being of populations and their human rights as an essential part of strengthening resilience in the region.