The UNR Human Rights Area, through the Socio-Educational Directorate in Confinement Contexts, participated in "Open the jail" - First international meeting of university education in confinement contexts.
From April 26 to 28, the first meeting was held at the San Martín University Center (CUSAM), headquarters of the National University of San Martín in the North Penitentiary Complex. "Open the jail" where there were work tables, workshops, artistic performances, book presentations and cultural exhibitions. More than 11 universities from Latin America, Europe, the United States and Africa participated, and had the support and participation of the National University Network for Education in the Context of Lockdown (Red UNECE).
In the words of the Cusam organizers: during these three days there was an exchange of experiences and perspectives on how the university transformed the prison, but also on how the prison experience transformed the university.
The team that represented the UNR Human Rights Area reflected: “The Congress fostered the meeting of programs from different parts of the world that allowed sharing the realities and educational projects in prisons. Likewise, the day contributed to the consolidation of the National Network of Universities of Education in Contexts of Confinement and to project the configuration of an international network that allows joint work between the eleven countries that participated in it.”
One of the objectives of this first edition of "Open the jail" was to build a space to address common problems and analyze specific strategies and practices of university programs within prisons that were part of this initiative.
In a global context of mass incarceration under a punitive paradigm, this meeting proposed to break the characteristic isolation of prisons and strengthen links and exchange between university programs that share a common perspective of human rights and articulation in territory, in the search for the creation of an international network of education in the context of confinement that can envision post-incarceration inclusion.
Communication Team Human Rights Area UNR