Event: What's the Role of Human Rights and Social Innovation in Latin America's Future?

Story bubbles on world map
Sorgente: Ashoka

Despite meteoric economic growth in the past several decades, Latin America still faces severe challenges of violence, organized crime and human rights violations.  With some of the highest rates of homicide and income inequality in the world, Latin America is nearing a watershed decision, choosing between the path of sustainable and safe development or the path of collapse and chaos.

To discuss this crossroad that Latin America faces and offer some systems-changing recommendations for the future, Ashoka and Amnesty International are jointly hosting a presentation on “Social Development, Human Rights and the Rule of Law in Latin America: The Social Entrepreneurs’ Perspective” on February 25 at Latham & Watkins. 

The presentation will feature two experts on human rights in the region, Valdênia Paulino and Francisco Ciampolini. Valdênia Paulino is a social entrepreneur, lawyer and a leading human rights defender in Brazil.   The first female state Police Ombudswoman in Paraíba, her efforts to monitor incidents of rights violations among the state security agencies led to a successful investigation and arrests of officials involved in militias, death squads and drug and arms trafficking.   Valdênia is currently also serving as a Fellow-in-Residence with Ashoka’s Fellow Security initiative, which supports Ashoka Fellows who face threats or emergencies due to the nature of their work. 

Valdenia is joined by Francisco Ciampolini, the Southern Cone Specialist with Amnesty International.  Also a Senior Program Officer at the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, Francisco has worked as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and as a legal assistant for the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the U.N. in Geneva.

Moderated by David Nahmias, who leads Ashoka’s Fellow Security initiative, this dynamic presentation will offer some systems-changing recommendations for the future of Latin America.