Declaration on Citizen Security in South America
Fortaleza, 26.08.2005

First Meeting of Heads of State of the South American Community of Nations
Brasilia, September 30

Within the context of the South American Community of Nations (CASA), established by the Declaration of Cusco on December 2004 and in accordance with Article 10 of the Ayacucho Declaration, released on the same occasion, the Ministers of Justice, Interior, Defense and Citizen Security of the countries of CASA gathered in Fortaleza, on August 25th and 26th 2005, considering:

THAT during the Cusco Summit, the South American Heads of State reaffirmed the need to ensure better standards of living and economic development for their peoples, which should be understood within an integral approach which comprises the guarantee of a fair and balanced income distribution, access to education, social cohesion and inclusion, as well as the preservation of the environment and the promotion of sustainable development;

THAT they recognize the work developed by Mercosur, the Andean Community and other intergovernmental and international forums and, for this reason, this work should be integrated in order to ensure the participation of all countries in the sub-continent aiming at the exchange of experiences on the matter;

THAT on the above mentioned exchange of experiences, state responsibility plays the main role, which is also originary and cannot be delegated. It is also necessary to take into consideration the invaluable contribution of the participation of the community and the technical and financial assistance of international organisms;

THAT it is an inalienable right of the peoples of the South American countries to be given the conditions which will guarantee their development in an environment of peace, ensuring a good living standard, free from violence and crime;

THAT security is a necessary condition for freedom and, therefore, indispensable to the development of the spirit of citizenship in a democratic society. There is no democracy without freedom, and no freedom without security;

THAT from a conceptual point of view, Citizen Security is being addressed in a permanently evolving way in all South American countries. To the concern with State Security has been added that with the security of citizens, embedded with its own values, in the context of the rule of law and the protection of human rights. The political evolution and the development of universal paradigms lead Citizen Security to focus on the construction of a culture peaceful coexistence, of respect to human dignity and the democratic system. For this reason, it is necessary to build practices directed toward guaranteeing the citizens the full exercise of their rights and freedom, as well as the fulfilling of their duties in an environment free of threats and risks, allowing the recovery of institutional confidence within the community;

THAT citizens’ participation is a key element for the consolidation of South American community values and rules, such as mutual respect and solidarity, which have been a tradition in those communities;

THAT in many countries, historically, the security provided by the Government to its citizens has been insufficient, focused only on police forces and dissociated from the civil society.

THAT social inequality is one of the causes of violence and insecurity in South America. Similarly, they hinder the advance towards greater social equality;

THAT many measuring instruments and methodologies show that insecurity is one of the main concerns for South American governments and citizens nowadays. In various countries in the region, governments and civil society have been organizing themselves, in search of adequate governmental answers to violence and crime, which are common in our cities;

THAT the use of public policies on Citizen Security in border areas and for the populations that live in those areas is of utmost importance for the advance of integration and for regional security;

THAT since Citizen Security constitutes a joint action of States and social energies, it is necessary to bear in mind that public security, understood as an exclusively governmental action, demands the intervention in crimes characterized by high levels of complexity, risks and organization.

DECLARE:

(1) The importance of establishing common public policies in Citizen Security through cooperation in training, exchange of information and experiences considering the existing integrating institutions, avoiding double efforts and excessive financial expenses.

(2) The need of consolidating an integral perspective which will foster the use of instruments of prevention and control of violence and crime backed and based on research and academic studies.

(3) The interest in making efforts, where law allows it, to involve new actors in the management of Citizen Security matters, such as governments with levels other than national one, governmental agencies who deal with populations in risk, as well as the private sector, NGOs and civil society, taking into consideration that Citizen Security should be regarded as a shared responsibility between Government and community.

(4) The willingness of their governments to make efforts towards institutional and legal reforms, foster inter-institutional coordination and improve capacity-building in human resources, aiming at improving actions concerning Citizen Security.

(5) The need to highlight and promote actions in Citizen Security that tend to strengthen and improve the capacities of the communities as preemptive agents in face of violence and crime, considering that citizen participation is a key element for advancing the consolidation of values and community norms of respect and solidarity, thus fostering better social relations.

(6) The importance for Citizen Security of commerce, possession and use of firearms and ammunition, as well as of disarmament initiatives and the effectiveness of legal regulation of those activities, including in border areas.

(7) The relevance of tertiary prevention, understood as every action that, originating in the State and in the community, allow citizen coexistence and the adoption of adequate national policies. They also commit themselves to making efforts to foster regional and international cooperation on this sector.

(8) Their agreement to approve the following Action Program and to submit to the coming Summit of the South American Community of Nations the recommendation of establishing the necessary mechanisms for its implementation.

South American Citizenship Security Action Program

In order to initiate the implementation of the principles and policies above mentioned, the Ministers of Justice, Interior, Defense and Citizen Security of the countries of the South American Community of Nations decide:

(1) To build an integrated net in the area of Citizen Security that will allow the gathering of knowledge and experiences, as well as an efficient exchange of information, bearing in mind the national legislations, through of the dissemination of best practices, the access to sources and the speedy information regarding all forms and manifestations of the phenomenon of violence and crime.

(2) To foster compared knowledge of the phenomenon of violence and crime in South America, a systematization of best practices, the analysis of the tools used for diagnosis and the institutional reforms already carried out. One of the instruments for achieving this objective may be the exchange of information among the observatories of prevention of violence and crime from several countries, with view to creating a South American observatory.

(3) To initiate the analysis of concrete programmatic action tools and study instruments for exchange of information management techniques, which will provide reasonable elements of judgement to allow the elaboration of a framework for establishing and implementing the above mentioned network.

(4) To foster cooperation originated from state, private or international and regional organizations in several fields related to Citizen Security, through training, exchange of experts, exchange of experiences and best practices.

(5) To recommend periodic intergovernmental meetings in the field of Citizenship Security.

(6) To advance on mechanisms that have been developed in the field of Citizen Security, such as: exchange of technical missions for working visits and internships, seminaries and workshops, analysis of special sources of financing and participation of academic institutions.