FOCO - Citizen Assembly for Justice and Human Rights - was created in 1998 as a member of SAPRIN (Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network). It was designed as a space for the convergence of many social organisations, with the purpose of promoting citizen participation in the development of public policies so that they serve the interests and well-being of local populations.

            Since then, FOCO has constituted a plural and democratic space, committed to the construction of a fair, participatory and cohesive society and open to the initiatives of the public and of social organizations. FOCO´s main purposes are the promotion and the defence of the Human Rights proclaimed and established by the United Nations and by the Interamerican System of Human Rights. After several years of work, the members of FOCO created INPADE (Institute for Participation and Development) with the intention of institutionalizing their work, to guarantee the regularity of the activities and to assume the legal representation in order to formally act with the national and international organisms and institutions. Consequently, FOCO becomes a program of INPADE, which assumes its legal representation.

            FOCO participates in different alliances and international networks that share its aims and that reject the globalisation model encouraged by the large international corporations. It works towards a globalisation model oriented by the values of justice and solidarity on behalf of populations worldwide, especially those of less favoured countries and social groups who have not benefited from the scientific, technological and productive advances of the last decades. In that sense, FOCO actively supports the peoples and social movements that fight for a construction of a just international order and a world society based on fundamental values such as liberty, equality, solidarity, freedom and justice.

            FOCO remains a member of SAPRIN and participates actively in the Global Network of organizations worldwide known as SOLIDAR and with IFWEA (International Federation of Workers’ Education Associations). FOCO also participates in the Hemispheric Social Alliance and, in Argentina, is member of the Civil Society Consultative Council of the Argentinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Concurso Nacional de Monografías sobre Derechos Humanos BECA UNLP IIDH
Hasta el 2 de mayo de 2011
El Instituto de Derechos Humanos de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata lanzó la XVI Edición del Concurso Nacional de Monografías sobre Derechos Humanos. El mismo está destinado a estudiantes, docentes, investigadores e investigadoras de todas las Universidades del país, y su premio consiste en el otorgamiento de la admisión académica y de una beca completa para asistir al XXIX Curso Interdisciplinario en Derechos Humanos a realizarse en la ciudad de San José de Costa Rica en agosto próximo, a cargo del Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos.

Para consultas, ingresar a www.derechoshumanos.unlp.edu.ar