Yesterday, in a special session of the Permanent Council , Member States of the OAS commemorated the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on Security in the Americas. During that session, the Secretary Genral of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza said that the Declaration was a formal manifestation of Member States interest in "seeking their security not through conflict but through cooperation and collective action." As we contemplate the notion of security through cooperation and collective action, clearly Civil Society has a key role to play.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to this virtual discussion space.

In this forum we are interested in receiving your opinions/comments/suggestions and experiences related to public security from your perspective as civil society organizations.

For this purpose we have selected three sub-themes, which will be open for discussion in three conversations, separated only for purposes of analysis.

a.)    regional cooperation strategies to prevent and confront threats to public security:

b.)    joint research, crime observatories and forecasting; and

c.)    networks and platforms for information exchange

I am Ana Clara Camarotti and I will be with you from today until the 8th of November, after which I will organize all that was discussed in these forums and report it to the Fourth Meeting of Ministers of Public Security of the Americas.

I look forward to your contributions.

Civil Society can play a vital role in the prevention to threats to public security through alert and sensitive dialogue with persons in communities. These observations to threats can alert the first reponders/police to any needed action required for the community.

In small islands there is more likely to be border threats, while in the larger states it will be border threats. Movement from one state to another can pose security problems if there is no monitoring of these persons. Training will help these civil organisations to get the needed feedback required for safety and security.

Mediation is always a mode that can be shared. Persons can move from state to state or country to country providing this service especially those persons who have a lot of experience in this field.

Information gathered in the field will provide data for easy analysis and further training to those involved.  Sharing information in a timely manner can also prevent any ontoward threats to security.

I look forward to other comments as I continue to contemplate this discussion further.

Thank you very much for your participation in this forum. Please remember that we have three parallel sessions – this is one of them, but there are two others in which we have posted questions to help guide your reflection of the issues and also your contributions to the forum.

If possible, we would very much like it if you could, prior to posting your first comment, briefly introduce the civil organization you represent, its mission and objectives. This will help us get to know each other a bit better and anchor our discussion.

We look forward to your participation.

Dear Participants,

Please remember that this is our last week to submit your inputs and comments to this virtual forum. We ask that you please provide your comments as soon as possible so that we can have a ample time for a full discussion among all participants. Below, please find a synopsis of what has been said so far in both the English and the Spanish language site.

• The State should be the guarantor of public security.
• Civil Society should play a fundamental role in the prevention of threats to public security. For this reason, thereshould be spaces for dialogue with key informants to detect situations that threaten public security. Likewise, thecommunity should contribute to the formulation and generation of strategies to resolve these problems.
• The situations that impact public security change quickly. This requires institutions and strategies that are capableof adapting and transforming themselves as just as quickly.
• A country’s borders have proven to be threat zones. Providing training to civil society organizations on theseissues would be very useful because it would allow for feedback of the experiences of the countries in the region. Likewise, these opportunities could be used to share information which could help to prevent threats to publicsecurity.
• The institutions responsible for addressing these issues should have an ethical posture and guarantee thetransparency of its actions. These institutions should reinforce and ensure the confidentiality of the complaintsmade by the general public. This would be reflected in increased opportunities for complaints on incidents thatshould be investigated.
• In those countries where there are gangs (El Salvador) the request is that the state look after and protect itscitizens and punish those that break the law.
• The persons who work for lave enforcement institutions should maintain impartiality, should guaranteetransparency in there actions and should receive remuneration commensurate with their work.

We look forward to your participation!

Public policies based on repression; populist “tough on crime” sentencing; rigid and inadequate justice and penal systems;difficulties in accessing effective treatment; precarious and ineffective social reinsertion systems; and the lack of opportunitiesfor incorporation into the formal/legal economy, have opened up enormous inequalities and generated burdensomeimpediments to the economic development of the region.
What can be done to change this situation? Which individuals or social actors should be involved? How should they beinvolved?
And specifically, what is the role of the public security institutions and which actions should they be taking in these situations?