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The ICRC fosters income generation and enhanced nutrition in communities affected by violence, and works towards providing essential services such as water. We also deliver first aid training and provide psychosocial support to these communities. Our local ICRC staff visit prisoners in order to ensure that they are treated with dignity and foster implementation of IHL and IHRL

The president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, today urged governments in Latin America and the Caribbean to support the negotiations on a new treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons.

Quito (ICRC) – Senior law enforcement officials from 13 Latin American countries are meeting today in Ecuador to address the challenges that arise in enforcing the law while upholding human rights and complying with international standards and rules.

The photo exhibition "80 años de acción humanitaria de la Cruz Roja" (80 years of Red Cross humanitarian action) features images of the ICRC's earliest work in Latin America, during the Chaco War (1932-1935). The photos show the everyday activities of Paraguayan and Bolivian prisoners of war, the wounded being attended to on the battlefield and the work of Paraguayan Red Cross

Valeriana Granse Franco beams with happiness as she wields a hoe in her strong, sun-beaten hands. The 75-year-old widow shares six hectares of land with her son, her daughter-in-law and her three grandchildren in Tacuatí Poty, a small village in the rural department of San Pedro.

The ICRC’s regional delegation for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay has been fulfilling its humanitarian mission since the 1970s.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, we are putting the spotlight on the struggles of women deprived of their freedom. Female detainees are often the sole providers for their families, so their detention results in great economic hardship for their loved ones. An innovative income generating project run by the ICRC in Paraguay is helping female detainees support themselves and their families.The women learn to make handicrafts which are sold on visitor's day and made to order for specific clients – giving them a marketable skill and a greater sense of self-worth.

Geneva (ICRC) – All over the world, women and girls living behind bars often face particular hardship in terms of protection, privacy and access to basic services, including health care. Consequences can be felt within their families and communities, well beyond prison walls.

A wide range of traditional Paraguayan handicrafts, made by female detainees, were on display at the International Handicrafts Trade Fair in Brasilia. The women are part of a handicrafts project being run by the Paraguayan Red Cross in conjunction with the ICRC.

Tuberculosis (TB) poses a serious threat to public health, and the incidence of the disease can be 20 times higher in places of detention than among the general population. Alain Vuilleumier, ICRC doctor for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, explains why this is and how the ICRC is supporting prison services in the region.