Elías Carranza: “What we need is a lot of social justice”

At yesterday evening’s launch of the Portuguese version of the book entitled, in its original Spanish, Cárcel y justicia penal en América Latina y el Caribe: como implementar el modelo de derechos y obligaciones de las Naciones Unidas, the editor of the book, Elías Carranza, spoke candidly and with conviction about “the horrendous situation of our prisons, especially in low- and middle-income countries” and about “the serious situation of crime due to the great inequality that exists between and within countries”.

Carranza ended his short presentation by reminding all of us that “what the world needs, and what low- and middle-income countries in particular need, is not more criminal justice but a criminal justice that is efficient, transparent, human and benign. Above all, what we need is a lot of social justice.”

On behalf of UNODC, John Sandage, Executive Secretary of the Congress, welcomed the report, which he described as “an inspiration for our own work”.

Carranza is Director of the Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (ILANUD), located in Costa Rica. The book was produced with the cooperation of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.