| Latin America is increasingly taking steps to promote confidence-building in defence matters. It is crucial that parliaments provide a critical contribution to these efforts. Moreover, the region faces important security challenges many of which are of a cross-border nature. Regional and bilateral arrangements, along with strong national action, are therefore crucial in developing effective responses, most notably in the fight against international organized crime. Parliamentary oversight is essential to ensure that the Government adequately equips and puts to use the security sector and to embed it in a democratic structure in the implementation of the tasks entrusted to it.
The Conference in Bogotá, which is organized by the National Congress of Colombia, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, will provide an opportunity for participants to exchange experiences regarding effective responses to current defence and security challenges in the region and good practices of effective parliamentary oversight. The event is aimed at parliamentarians from Latin America, and particularly those who work on security issues (members of defence, budget or foreign affairs committees) and the parliamentary staff of such committees. |
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