Auschwitz Institute Launches Latin American Network for Genocide Prevention
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### For Immediate Release
New York, April 3, 2012 – The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) met in Buenos Aires last week with officials of 18 countries from Central and South America to [launch](http://www.prensaanm.com.ar/pei/md_nota.asp?id=11677) the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. The March 29 and 30 event—organized by AIPR in cooperation with Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice, Security and Human Rights, as well as the Secretariat for Human Rights of the Presidency of Brazil—set in motion an unprecedented region-wide initiative to prioritize prevention of genocide and mass atrocities by having civil servants from the network's 18 states undergo training in this area. Participating states—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela—also committed to establishing a national focal point within their government to coordinate policy and share information with other countries in the network. AIPR Executive Director Tibi Galis said the network "was conceived as a capacity-building mechanism for the region, as well as a forum to support the development of more effective policy to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities." He explained that "the next step will be the approval of a training curriculum, designed by the Auschwitz Institute in collaboration with each member state." To symbolize the importance of the issue, the first day of the meeting was held in the Escuela Superior Militar de Aviacion, better known as ESMA, the infamous Navy Mechanical School where over 5,000 Argentinians were disappeared, tortured, and executed during the country's [Dirty War](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War) of 1976–83. The second day was held at Argentina's Foreign Service Institute, operated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Also present, with an eye to creating a similar network for the African Union, were observers from the African Union Commission, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes, as well as a representative of the [United Nations Office of the Special Advisers on Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect](http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/) , a supporter of the network. Once the network's member states have established national focal points and approved the training curriculum, the Auschwitz Institute will hold its first seminar for the countries' civil servants. Currently it is slated for November 2012 and will be held, like AIPR's other [genocide prevention programs](file:///C:/Users/ricardo.magana/Desktop/Borrar/MadridNYC/AUSCH/AUSCH/lemkin-seminars.html) , on the Holocaust site of Auschwitz, in Poland.
