Dallaire Institute anchors child‑protection work in Latin America with new centre of excellence

The Dallaire Institute of Children, Peace and Security now has a dedicated base of operations in Latin America thanks to the support of the Uruguayan government.

Dalhousie signed an agreement late last month with the Uruguayan Ministry of National Defence on behalf of the institute to launch the Latin American Centre of Excellence for Children, Peace and Security.

The Uruguay hub will function as the nerve centre for the Dallaire Institute in the region, anchoring its efforts to protect children from those seeking to recruit and deploy them as weapons of war.

“Building the global agenda on children, peace, and security requires a deeper understanding of the fragile contexts that threaten the protection of children,” said Shelly Whitman, the Dallaire Institute’s executive director, in a release.

“This Latin America Centre of Excellence will build critical bridges between parties around the region, and our collective advocacy efforts will demonstrate best practices and policies to prioritize the protection of children for the entire world."

Uruguay is a natural partner for the Dallaire Institute in the region. It was one of the first countries to endorse the Vancouver Principles, a set of political commitments co-created by the institute and the Government of Canada that are centred around improving child protection in peacekeeping contexts.

Equipping the security sector

As with its African Centre of Excellence in Rwanda, launched in 2018 in partnership with Dal, the new Latin American centre will provide the necessary knowledge and support to security sector personnel, policy makers, and communities to implement tangible solutions to better protect children.

“We look forward to a strong cooperation between the Dallaire Institute and the National Peace Operations Training Institute of Uruguay that will enhance training and education in our country and across the region on the prevention of the recruitment and use of children as soldiers,” said Javier García Duchini, Uruguay's minister of national defence, in a statement.


Members of the Ministry of National Defence of Uruguay, including Javier Duchini, the country's minister of national defence (fourth from left).

The Dallaire Institute has become well known around the world for its unique approach to tackling the problem of child soldiers by empowering those in the security sector — such as military, police and peacekeeping personnel — to be “positive agents of change.”

The new centre will build on this approach in the Latin American context, where countries such as Uruguay have become leading lights in United Nations peacekeeping operations in the region. In Haiti, for instance, a UN stabilization mission set a precedent as the first in the region entirely made up of Latin American forces. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay all contributed.