Undoing the Coup: 1973-2023
Event
Date: Monday 11 September 2023
Time: 13.00 – 15.00
Location: Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies, Stockholm University, Universitetsvägen 10 B & Online*
The Edelstam Foundation together with the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies welcome you to a public conversation, commemorating the 50-years anniversary of the coup in Chile 1973
Fifty years ago, the brutal overthrow of Chile's democratically elected president, Salvador Allende, shocked the world and marked the start of a repressive, 16-year dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet. This led to thousands of victims of human rights violations in Chile, where thousands of individuals were tortured or murdered.
Following the military coup, the Swedish ambassador Harald Edelstam conducted several major actions using his diplomatic immunity to save the lives of more than one thousand people. Among other things, he offered persecuted Chileans and other Latin Americans who had fled to Chile from military dictatorships in Uruguay and Brazil, safe conduct to and asylum in Sweden, with the support of the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme.
We are also commemorating the strength of the international cooperation to pursue justice for the victims of the coup in Chile in 1973 and elsewhere - the first time in history the principle of universal jurisdiction was used to indict a former head of state, Augusto Pinochet.
Pinochet was indicted in Spain in July 1996 for human rights violations committed in Chile between 1973 and 1989. He was arrested in London in October 1998 and held under house arrest for a year and a half. The House of Lords decided in November 1999 to waive his immunity as head of state, on the grounds that international law did not recognize any immunity for charges of international crimes such as torture. Pinochet was denied immunity again in March 2000, and subsequently the High Court of London granted his extradition to Spain. The British government decided afterwards to release him due to health considerations. Authorized to return to Chile, the Supreme Court deprived Pinochet of his immunity and he was indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia and charged with several crimes.
By commemorating this occasion - the first time since the 1945 Nuremberg trials that the international criminal legislation was fully tested and implemented - we want to highlight the importance of the international community's solidarity and strength in the protection of human rights and mankind.
Registration
event@edelstamprize.org by September 8th.
Seats are limited and registrations will be reserved on "first
come, first serve" basis.
To follow online, please register here
Participants and program
| 13:00 | Dr. Thaïs Machado Borges, Director of the Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies greets welcome |
|
13.05 |
Ms. Caroline Edelstam, President of the Edelstam Foundation and granddaughter of Ambassador Harald Edelstam, the Swedish diplomat who saved more than a thousand people's lives during and after the coup in Chile. |
|
13.25 |
Mr. Ignacio Guevara, witness telling his story being rescued by Ambassador Harald Edelstam. |
|
13.45 |
Mr. Stefan Lofven, board member of the Edelstam Foundation and former Prime Minister of Sweden. |
|
14.05 |
Dr. Carlos Castresana-Fernandez, former prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Spain and author of the initial lawsuits in 1996 that allowed Pinochet to be brought to justice before the Spanish Audiencia Nacional and then the House of Lords; and former Head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala. By video link. |
|
14.35 |
Discussions and questions led by the moderator, Dr. Brian Palmer, a scholar of civic courage at Uppsala University and Edelstam Foundation board member. |
|
15.00 |
End of seminar. |
The seminar will be conducted in English.
Last updated: August 28, 2023
Source: Nordic Institute of Latin American Studies