MEETING OF MINISTERS OF PUBLIC SECURITY OF THE AMERICAS TO FOCUS ON STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION ON SECURITY

Washington, November 20- The Fourth Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA IV) will be held in Medellin, Colombia, on November 21 and 22, focused on the issue of "Strengthening International Cooperation in the Area of Public Security”.

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza; the Minister of Defense of Colombia, Juan Carlos Pinzón; and the Director General of the National Police of Colombia, Rodolfo Palomino, will participate in the opening of the meeting on Thursday at 9:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at the Convention Center - Plaza Mayor of Medellín, the headquarters of the event where the Ministers of Public Security and and Attorneys General of the Americas will meet.

During the two-day meeting, there will be three sessions whose main topics are: regional cooperation strategies to prevent and address threats to public security of states; joint investigation, crime observatories, and forecasting; and hemispheric networks and platforms for police information exchange. Each session will feature several presentations from representatives of the member countries, and a dialogue of Ministers and Heads of Delegation.

Secretary General Insulza has highlighted on several occasions the importance of international coordination and cooperation in public security to succeed in the fight against transnational crime. "Crime is organized and transnational. Our response in all fields, from prevention to control and not forgetting rehabilitation and assistance to victims, must therefore also be organized and transnational and, insofar as possible, be more flexible than that of our opponents,” said the OAS Secretary General during the commemoration at the OAS Permanent Council of the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on Security in the Americas.

During a preparatory visit to Washington, DC, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Colombia, Jorge Enrique Bedoya, revealed that the host government has proposed that the high-level meeting serve to “strengthen the bonds of cooperation, coordination and mutual assistance between the institutions responsible for public security in the member states in order to reduce violence and organized crime, and to contribute to the maintenance of peace and security in the Hemisphere”.

The MISPA was created as instrument of cooperation between the OAS members on Citizen Security, and aims to strengthen the dialogue between the states of the region in order to achieve effective cooperation, facilitate the transfer of knowledge, and support technical assistance and the exchange of effective practices in this area.

To date, the MISPA has met three times, MISPA I was held in Mexico City, Mexico, in October 2008; MISPA II was held in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, in November 2009; and MISPA III was held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in November 2011.

The First Meeting of MISPA concluded with the adoption of the Commitment to Public Security in the Americas which established the five pillars to support the design and implementation of a comprehensive response to public security challenges, within a democratic framework: public security management; prevention of crime, violence and insecurity; police management; citizen and community participation; and international cooperation.

The Second Meeting of MISPA concluded with the adoption of the Consensus of Santo Domingo on Public Security in which member states reiterated their commitment to confront public security threats from a human rights perspective. This Consensus strengthens the mission, the objectives and the role of the ministerial process and supports its institutional consolidation.

In MISPA III, the host country, Trinidad and Tobago, proposed that the process be strengthened by adopting the approach of one of the pillars of the Commitment to Public Security in the Americas, the strengthening of police management.

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