Official Presentation of AIPR's Regional Office in Argentina

On Thursday, August 16, 2018, the Auschwitz Institute officially presented its recently established regional headquarters with "AIPR in Argentina: Building Bridges for Prevention." Opening the event, AIPR Executive Director Tibi Galis spoke about the mission, vision, and trajectory of the organization at the global level. For her part, Eugenia Carbone, Director of Latin American Programs and head of the regional office, shared details on AIPR's working plans in Argentina which are designed to have an impact in Latin America. In his presentation, Tibi Galis placed special emphasis on the organization's mandate to honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and other genocides. AIPR does this through its work in prevention that stops the repetition of the atrocities of the past. Dr. Galis also gave details on the institutional design of AIPR, mentioning the importance of, and reasons behind, the organization's decision to maintain an office in Argentina. Following Dr. Galis, Eugenia Carbone spoke about the work that has been developed in collaboration with Argentina within the framework of the Latin American Network since 2012. She also covered the institutional format that the regional office will have and mentioned training, implementation, and expansion as the three strategic priorities for the office in Buenos Aires. These presentations were accompanied by a message from Fabián Salvioli, an Argentinian academic and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of nonrecurrence. He identified possible paths for the integration of a focus on prevention into the actions based in transitional justice and human rights taken at the national and international levels. Salvioli also briefly covered the challenges that face the local and international communities today in these thematic areas. Next, Regional Director Carbone presented the members of the local Advisory Committee. These individuals, from different disciplines and professional backgrounds, will accompany the expansion and continuation of AIPR's mission and vision at the local level. Andrea Gualde, Rut Diamint, Paula Szenkman and Carlos Zaballa were presented as the initial members of the Advisory Committee and spoke about their careers and commitment to AIPR, as well as extending an invitation to attendees to join them in working to confront these challenges. The event concluded with time for attendees to meet and talk with each other. This unique opportunity provided a chance for experts in a variety of different spheres to build bridges and unite in the common cause of strengthening ties and actions for the prevention of atrocities and protection of rights.