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Bi-regional conference on fostering the use of alternative measures to imprisonment

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Drugs Demand Reduction

Drugs Supply Reduction

Bi-regional conference on fostering the use of alternative measures to imprisonment
Start date
19/09/19
End Date
20/09/19
Place
Montevideo, Uruguay

The success achieved by merging two fields (Demand and Supply Reduction) at the 1st Bi-regional meeting for the exchange of best practices, convening authorities and experts from Components 2 and 3 of COPOLAD II, allowed us to consider the possibility to further expand the creation of synergies in the highly demanding field of managing alternative programmes for drug-related offences.

Due to its relative youth, the alternative programmes to prisons have to respond to huge challenges which can only be overcome through the highest political commitment to make significant progress at a policy level, the provision of appropriate resources, the articulation of social and health care responses coordinated with the judicial system and the rigorous evaluation of the initiatives developed so far. In this framework, the 2nd Bi-Regional meeting for the exchange of Best practices is planned in close coordination with other European Union funded regional programmes which are working in the fields of security and social policy: EL PAcCTO and EUROsociAL+.

Operative Dimension

Code
2.3.2 (3.4.4)
Year
2019
Component
C2 - Drugs Demand Reduction
Execution Level
Finished
Activity Types
Implementation

Preparation of the bi-regional meeting in close cooperation with El PAcCTO and EUROsociAL+, to identify and exchange best practices in the field of alternative programmes to imprisonment. The ECB of COPOLAD will closely work with the teams of both programmes in order to draft an agenda which can enhance the support given to countries to facilitate the progress of alternative programmes to prison. The collaborating agencies of COPOLAD will also be involved (EMCDDA, CICADOAS, PAHO/WHO, AIAMP, IDPC, RIOD).

Associated operational objectives

0.1 - Establish the necessary operational bases to ensure the quality and coherence of the work to be performed and the necessary coordination and participation of all partners.
0.3 - Ensure visibility of COPOLAD and its activities and disseminate the contents in the main political and professional forums in the field of drug policies to be held both internationally and in CELAC.
0.4 - Establish the necessary institutional contacts to avoid duplication with already developed initiatives and ensure synergies with ongoing initiatives, both within the EU and CELAC.
2.1 - Assess existing needs in DDR, to define specific final contents of foreseen activities under Component 2, adjusting them according to different groups of countries.
2.4 - Promote the identification and exchange of best practices for populations at risk of social exclusion (selective and indicated prevention), paying special attention to teens threatened by contexts of crime and violence; or other populations at risk.
2.6 - Maintain a project-supported initiative, which ensures the availability of planning and evaluation tools, in a way that becomes self-sustaining beyond the duration of the programme.

Results

Expected Result/s & output/s: 

  • Bi-regional meeting successfully organized and held.
  • Materials presented, available at the webpage of COPOLAD
  • Best practices on programmes from EU and CELAC countries, identified and exchanged.
  • Evaluation report.

Indicators

Identified and exchanged among all participating countries of, at least, 10 best practices for populations at risk of social exclusion (selective and indicated prevention), paying special attention to teens threatened by contexts of crime and violence; or other populations at risk.

Institutions

AUCI - Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation Uruguay

Collaborator

Institution Website
JND - National Drug Board Uruguay

Collaborator

Institution Website
COPOLAD - Cooperation Programme between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies Contracting Partner

Organizer

Institution Website

Participant Institutions

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Participation

Participation for regions

Participation of countries for region

Participants

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Programme

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Press Release

Three cooperation programmes of the European Union working with Latin America and the Caribbean join forces to foster the use of Alternative Measures to Imprisonment

Three cooperation programmes of the European Union working with Latin America and the Caribbean join forces to foster the use of Alternative Measures to Imprisonment

Three regional cooperation programmes of the European Union (COPOLAD II, EL PAcCTO and EUROsociAL+) have joined forces and innovative working methods to organise the Bi-Regional Conference on fostering the use of Alternative Measures to Imprisonment, which will take place in Montevideo on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 September at the Executive Tower of the Presidency of Uruguay and at the Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel, respectively.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the average rate of persons deprived of liberty is over 226/100,000 inhabitants, and the trend is towards an increase. The objective of this two-day Conference is to reflect on the management of penal, penitentiary and reinsertion policies, to present alternative measures to deprivation of liberty and to generate awareness of the advantages that these innovative and effective proposals imply in judicial, economic, social and political terms for all countries.

Experts in the Justice sector, actors from the prison sector and institutional representatives from different countries will participate in round tables and discussions with the aim of promoting debate and sharing successful experiences on the application of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty aimed at reducing overcrowding in prisons, lowering recidivism rates, facilitating processes to improve the social reintegration of prisoners and fighting more effectively against organized crime that thrives in prisons in the region. These challenges are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of 2030 Agenda, and include the gender perspective in policies of alternative measures to deprivation of liberty.

The conference will be inaugurated on Thursday 19 September at 9:00 a.m. by Jorge de la Caballería, from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission; together with the Uruguayan representatives Jorge Díaz Almeida, Attorney General of the Nation; Elena Martínez Rosso, Minister of the Supreme Court of Justice and Juan Andrés Roballo, Secretary-general of the Presidency of the Republic and President of the Board of Directors of the Uruguayan Agency for International Cooperation (AUCI) and the Drugs National Board (JND).

Josep Borrell, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, and the next High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union will also send an institutional greeting during the opening ceremony.

In addition, Eduardo Bonomi, Uruguay's Minister of Home Affairs; Andrea Vignolo, Executive Director of the Uruguayan International Cooperation Agency; and institutional representatives of the three European programmes (EUROsociAL+, COPOLAD II, EL PAcCTO) and their implementing Consortiums made up of cooperation agencies and international organisations: FIIAPP, Expertise France, IILA, Camões and SISCA-SICA will also be present at the highlights of the conference.

Gallery

Downloads

Open access documents

  • Exchange of views on human rights impacts and policy responses in places of detention in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (DROI Committee meeting - 05.2020)
    Access
  • Prisión preventiva en América Latina: El impacto desproporcionado en mujeres privadas de libertad por delitos de drogas
    Access in Spanish

Restricted documents

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Reports

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