MIAMI, Florida (February 15, 2012)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) announced it will be holding an international conference, bringing together representatives of universities from throughout the Americas to discuss the relevance of the inter-American human rights system at a time when several governments in the region have put in doubt its effectiveness.
Under the title “The inter-American System and Freedom of Expression,” the hemispheric conference will be held from March 26-27 at the campus of American University (AU) in Washington, D.C. This event is a collaborative effort between the IAPA, American University and Stanford University and has the support of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
This event has been made possible through the generous support of the James McClatchy Fund of the San Francisco Foundation, the Scripps Howard News Service and the Scripps Howard Foundation, Central Valley Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the James B. McClatchy Chair of Stanford University.
Panelists and moderators include law and communication professors and students from American and Stanford universities, as well as from 15 universities in the region representative of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela. -- Reporters, editors and publishers, lawyers, jurists, diplomats and human rights activists have been invited as panelists and as observers
This conference forms part of the IAPA Chapultepec Project that is engaged in the dissemination and promotion of the Declaration of Chapultepec, a 10-point statement of principles on freedom of expression and of the press written by political leaders, intellectuals, journalists and members of the public that participated in an IAPA 1994 summit in Mexico.
The IAPA Chapultepec Project has held more than 20 conferences and discussion forums at the hemispheric, regional and national levels across Latin America. These events have brought together legislators and jurists and yielded important recommendations for public policy reforms in favor of press freedom. From these conferences also emerged what have now become prevailing trends in the Americas, such as efforts to decriminalize defamation and libel and the enactment of laws on transparency and access to public information.
The Declaration of Chapultepec, signed to date by 61 presidents of nations in the Americas, served as the basis for the drafting in 2001 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
