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EXPERTS AT OAS BRIEF INTER-AMERICAN DEFENSE COLLEGE STUDENTS ON DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENTS

  February 22, 2008

Fifty-four postgraduate students from the http://www.jid.org/ participated in a program at the Organization of American States headquarters, where they heard perspectives on the hemispheric security and defense situation and learned about the pertinent hemispheric instruments.

Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin welcomed the students to the daylong event at OAS headquarters on Thursday. During their session, the participants from 16 countries along with a representative from Spain—among them senior military and government officials—heard from various experts who gave a hemispheric overview on democracy, human rights and integral development I n the hemisphere.

Permanent Representative of Brazil to the OAS Ambassador Osmar Chohfi outlined the history and evolution of the inter-American system and the role of the OAS, while Director of the Department of External Relations Irene Klinger spoke about the activities of the hemispheric organization in the region. Inter-American Defense College Director Rear Admiral Moira Flanders, meanwhile, thanked the OAS for its support to the College.

Located at Fort Lesley J. McNair, the Inter-American Defense College was formally opened in October 1962 as part of the Inter-American Defense Board. An arm of the OAS since March 2006, the College provides a professionally oriented, multidisciplinary, graduate-level course of study in defense, in an eleven-month academic program that focuses on government systems, the current international environment, the structure and functioning of the inter-American system, as well as a wide range of security-related issues facing the Hemisphere and the world at large.

Under this eleven-month academic program, senior military and government officials gain a comprehensive understanding of governmental systems, the current international environment, structure and function of the Inter-American system.

Reference: E-052/08