Legal assistance for migrants in Latin America

In the framework of the II Meeting of the EUROsociAL+ Programme, held in Cartagena de Indias, a letter of commitment was signed between EUROsociAL+, a programme funded by the European Union and managed by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), and the Inter-American Association of Public Defenders (AIDEF) in order for the Programme to join in with efforts in the design and elaboration of a regional defence model for foreigners and migrants in line with international obligations.

This letter of commitment was signed at the meeting, through the participation of representatives from the Judiciary, Ministries of Justice, Public Prosecutors and Defenders and experts from institutions in Latin America and Europe.

This commitment was approved by the FIIAPP director, Anna Terrón Cusí, on behalf of EUROsociAL+, the director of the Institute of Criminal Public Defence of Guatemala, Nydia Lissette Arévalo, who currently heads the General Coordination of AIDEF, the General Ombudsman of the Union of Brazil, Gabriel Faria Oliveira and the National Ombudsman of Chile, Andrés Mahnke Malschafsky, who have promoted this initiative.

Access to justice for vulnerable people was one of the topics discussed at the II EUROsociAL+ Meeting as a result of the Latin American region seeing an increase in migratory flows, especially from the northern triangle of Central America and Mexico, of Venezuelans to Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile and of Nicaraguans to Costa Rica. The right of access to justice and to the protection of rights for migrants is therefore especially relevant in such situations.

The Brasilia Rules on access to justice for vulnerable people, approved in the framework of the Ibero-American Judicial Summit in 2008, recognise that migrants and foreigners are persons in vulnerable situations, who require special protection against abusive or discriminatory situations in migratory environments.