The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) invites you to a conversation on:
Forced Displacement in El Salvador:
Causes, Trends, and Responses
With
Noah Bullock
Executive Director, Cristosal
and
Adriana Beltrán
Senior Associate for Citizen Security, WOLA
Moderated by
Kristel Muciño
Director of Communications, WOLA
Monday, September 26, 2016
3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
WOLA
1666 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20009
To RSVP, please complete the form to the right.
For more information, contact Carolyn Scorpio at (202) 797-2171 or cscorpio@wola.org. We hope you are able to join us.
This event will be held in English. A livestream of the event will be available at www.wola.org.
Social conflict in El Salvador has caused the country to become one of the most violent in the world, with homicide rates not seen since the civil war era. The number of displaced persons in El Salvador has increased in recent years, as individuals and families have been forced to flee their homes, their communities, and even their country due to violence perpetuated by the gangs and, in some cases, security forces. Although there are an estimated 289,000 internally displaced persons in the country, the Salvadoran government has yet to recognize the existence of internal displacement due to violence, and victims far too often find inadequate services and a lack of protection from state institutions.
In this discussion, Noah Bullock, Executive Director of Cristosal in El Salvador, will share information on regional displacement trends, causes, and citizen security issues in the country based on new data and personal testimonies gathered by the Salvadoran Civil Society Observatory on Forced Displacement by Violence and compiled in two new reports by the Civil Society Roundtable on Forced Displacement by Violence and Organized Crime (Mesa de Sociedad Civil contra el Desplazamiento Forzado por Violencia Generada y Crimen Organizado en El Salvador) and El Salvador’s Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (Procuraduria para la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos, PDDH). WOLA’s Adriana Beltrán will discuss the role of the U.S. government and the international community in addressing the root causes of violence and insecurity in the region.
Noah Bullock is the Executive Director of Cristosal, a nongovernmental organization based in El Salvador advancing human rights in Central America through rights-based programming, research, and learning. The organization has increasingly been working with families that have been forced to flee their communities by gangs and violence, providing legal protection and humanitarian response. In the last year, Mr. Bullock has presented at the World Humanitarian Summit, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) annual NGO consultations in Geneva, and worked directly with the regional coordinating group in Central America on the implementation of the Brazil Action Plan in attending to victims of forced displacement by violence, particularly in the Northern Triangle.
Adriana Beltrán leads WOLA’s Citizen Security Program, focusing on violence prevention, and police and judicial reform in Central America. In addition to her work on citizen security, Ms. Beltrán has worked extensively on human rights and organized crime in Central America. She is currently leading WOLA’s Central America Aid Monitor, which will track U.S. assistance programs to reduce violence, strengthen law enforcement and judicial institutions, and tackle corruption. Working with partners on the ground, the Monitor will also evaluate Central American governments’ progress in meeting the aid requirements on transparency, corruption, justice, and public security.