Authors:
Andrea Ribeiro Hoffmann (PUC-Rio)
Babatunde Fagbayibo (University of Pretoria)
Artur Boya (PUC-Rio)

In order to strengthen the links between Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Africa in the topics of democracy and human rights it is important to understand how these countries have interacted (i.e. cooperated, coordinated and aligned positions) about these topics historically, and to what extent these regions share values, interests or have short, medium or long term strategic objectives that they prioritize in their interregional relations.

Democracy and human rights are ‘normative’ issue-areas, i.e. they reflect formal and informal collective understandings of societies about ‘the good life’, and that are often codified in national constitutions and national and regional governance institutions. In order to analyse the democracy and human rights dimensions of interregional relations between LAC and Africa and following the concepts of methodology of the Research Project it is part, this paper, firstly, maps key LAC and African regional norms and rules about democracy and human rights. As Paper Zero of this Research Project shows, both regions have been prolific in engaging in collective projects of regional cooperation and integration, and in fact, they have also included norms and rules to promote and protect democracy and human rights. This mapping is a first exercise to understand how LAC and African countries discuss and understand the concepts of democracy and human rights in their regions, how they have balanced the concept of national sovereignty with international commitments, and if these multilateral mechanisms have contributed to strengthen democracy and human rights of their societies.

O projeto de pesquisa sobre Cooperação África-América Latina vem sendo desenvolvido pelo ILAM desde  2024. Tem o objetivo de estudar a realidade e as possibilidades de cooperação entre as duas regiões em seis áreas: Segurança, Construção da Democracia e Direitos Humanos, Governança Digital, Meio Ambiente, Desenvolvimento, Financiamento Sustentável e Saúde.

Visamos compreender a cooperação inter-regional, entre atores estratégicos das duas regiões e dentro de esferas multilaterais.  Nosso objetivo é produzir conhecimento sobre o tema e gerar redes de pesquisadores e atores governamentais e da sociedade civil que possam incentivar o debate, produzir novas ideias e propostas de políticas públicas nestes campos.

O projeto é financiado pelo IDRC (International Development Research Center) do Canada.