The Cartagena Process: Four Decades of Regional Hospitality

In particular, it recommended the adoption of an expanded definition of refugee, extending protection to people forced to flee in situations other than the grounds covered by the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.

Following this Declaration, the region established the tradition of commemorating its adoption every ten years, giving rise to the "Cartagena Process" and inspiring what has been called the "Spirit of Cartagena," characterized by a priority focus on the protection of refugees and on solutions, as well as convergence with existing protection mechanisms and frameworks.

• In 1994, in Costa Rica, the San Jose Declaration on Refugees and Displaced Persons was adopted. It analyzed the importance of the Cartagena Declaration as a protection tool and included the need to address the situation of internally displaced persons in the region.
• In 2004, the Mexico Declaration and Plan of Action to Strengthen the International Protection of Refugees in Latin America (PAM) was adopted. It innovated by including a ten-year Regional Plan of Action that introduced pioneering programs on protection and durable solutions: "solidarity borders," "solidarity resettlement," and "solidarity cities."
• In 2014, the Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action (PAB) was adopted, with the participation for the first time of States and territories from the Caribbean. The PAB, as a ten-year roadmap, put into practice the principles of solidarity, international cooperation, and shared responsibility, later included in the 2018 Global Compact on Refugees, while incorporating statelessness as a new protection area together with the programs "quality asylum" and "comprehensive and sustainable solutions." It also set strategies for the Caribbean and Northern Central America based on their specific needs.

The 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees constitutes one of the milestones of Latin America's long-standing tradition of refugee protection, by embracing an expanded definition of the concept that, among other aspects, makes it a global model of human-rights-centered legislation (Freier, 2015).

Cartagena+40: a new landscape of challenges and emerging protection and solutions needs

The number of people in situations of mobility has reached unprecedented levels in the region, and displaced persons face increasingly serious risks, such as extortion, kidnapping, and death along the route, as well as diverse and severe forms of gender-based violence, forced recruitment, exploitation, and trafficking in persons. The risk of statelessness has also increased, with difficulties in accessing birth registration procedures, acquiring nationality at birth, and obtaining documentation to prove nationality, among other challenges.

The Cartagena+40 Process will build on the region's agreements, advances, and achievements over recent decades, ensuring their inclusion at national and regional levels. It will continue the Brazil Plan of Action, maintaining the relevance of its tools and good practices, while seeking to strengthen, expand, and regionalize them across Latin America and the Caribbean. Chile will host the process in December 2024. OBMICA participates in the civil society network known as the Regional Articulating Group of the Brazil Plan of Action (GARPAB). We will report on relevant developments in 2024, including the official consultations convening a broad range of key actors that will begin in Mexico in April.