News

November News 2017

Currently @ LATINNO

This month, LATINNO's coordinator and founder, Thamy Pogrebinschi, was featured together with one of the project's former research assistants, Talita Tanscheit, at Open Democracy/Democracia Abierta, discussing what happened to citizen participation in Brazil after Dilma Rousseff's impeachment.

As the year comes to an end, we want to also look back at the positive contributions made towards building more peaceful societies in the region. This month's newsletter will be dedicated to the different forms of citizen participation aimed at conflict-resolution, giving a special space to Colombia's active citizenry during the peace talks. 

Database

Our database currently has 2461 cases of democratic innovations.

New Publications

 

Brazil went from being a case study about successful political experimentation with citizen participation to an example of how democratic innovations may be fragile. In this article, Thamy Pogrebinschi and Talita Tanscheit take a look at the changes that occurred to Brazil's main national-level participatory institutions after Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and weigh upon the challenges of state-led citizen participation.

The article is available in English and Spanish at OpenDemocracy/Democracia Abierta.

Featured Cases

The Week for Peace began in 1987 in Colombia and since then, it has been organized every year. This space seeks to share the experiences of the peace-building efforts of thousands of citizens, with the aim of achieving a political solution for the civil war.

Every year, the Week for Peace adopts a central motto or idea, taking into account the circumstances in which it is celebrated. It has the active participation of indigenous peoples; economically marginalized sectors of society; unions; women, youth and victims' organizations; religious groups; universities; human rights bodies, and other institutions.

 

 

Mapa 76 is a web platform that allows citizens to organize large amounts of information linked to the last military dictatorship in Argentina. Its main purpose is to spread the news of trials against humanity, uploading the cases and updating the state of the processes and sentences. Citizens can also add information about state actions that are to be investigated and disseminated.

 

The 1995 Civil Society Assembly was formed by the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and the Government one year before the signing of the Peace Accords, for the realization of the peace negotiation agenda.

Several stakeholders participated in the assembly: citizens, academic, religious, trade union, popular, human rights organizations, indigenous and women's groups, as well as political parties.

Five key themes were discussed during the dialogue process: the resettlement of uprooted populations, the identity and rights of indigenous peoples, socio-economic and agrarian issues, the strengthening of civilian power and the role of the army; and finally, constitutional reforms and the electoral system. The civil society proposals agreed upon during the Assembly were given to both players of the conflict and were a key element during the discussions prior to the signing of the peace treaty.

Newest Innovation

The Laboratory of Civic Innovation for Peace and Post-Conflict (#LABICxlaPaz) is a space promoted by several governmental entities and international organizations with the aim of designing and implementing projects that will provide a rapid response to different challenges in the aftermath of the conflict, especially in the region of Nariño, one of the most war-torn areas of Colombia.

This platform will give space to 10 projects, which will be carried out within the framework of different thematic areas: technology, good living, virtual education, irrigation systems, the right to water, agriculture, among others. The call is open to everybody, however, only 99 citizens will be selected to participate in this initiative.

#LABICxlaPaz is part of a series of innovation laboratories that have been carried out in different Latin American cities such as Veracruz, Rio de Janeiro, and Cartagena.