Strengthening of Public Defender's Offices

In Latin America, Public Defender's Offices are key stakeholders for guaranteeing access to justice by incarcerated persons and ensuring that they can exercise their fundamental rights.

This EUROsociAL action is oriented towards expanding and strengthening the coverage of the assistance services provided by the Public Defender's Offices in order to humanise and dignify attention to incarcerated persons, with a specific emphasis on the gender perspective. To do so, it works at three levels in parallel:

Regional, with the definition of common models or tools (standardisation of minimum parameters for the offices, instruments for monitoring the situation of fundamental rights in incarceration facilities, etc.).
National, with the strengthening of services for assisting incarcerated persons in relation to the enforcement of criminal sentences (transfer of regional parameters to the national level).
This line of action is oriented towards persons who experience greater difficulty in exercising their rights and demanding respect for their fundamental rights, incarcerated persons, and intervenes in a sector that many countries of the region have difficulty with.

In addition, from a regional standpoint, the action incorporates the creation of instruments that make it possible to monitor the situation of fundamental rights in incarceration facilities at the national level, and to issue recommendations and raise awareness about it.

This area also develops awareness-raising activities aimed at ensuring that the users know their rights and the mechanisms for claiming them so that, ultimately, they gain the capacity to confront the poor practices traditionally associated with incarceration.

Go to the sheet for the activity