Instituto de Defensa Legal -- Legal Defense Institute

About the IDL

The IDL is a non-governmental organization in Peru devoted to the defense and promotion of human rights as part of bringing peace to this country and consolidating its democratic institutions. The IDL was founded in 1983, when general and permanent violence appeared in the country, due to the 1980's appearance of Sendero Luminoso, a political organization with terrorist methods, and because of the governmental answer that maintains a continual practice of human rights violations, principally against innocent individuals.

We are part of the National Coordinator of Human Rights CNDDHH (Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos) and belong to its directors' council and to the Peruvian Network of Human Rights Education (Red Peruana de Educacion en Derechos Humanos).

IDL's Scope of Work

IDL's scope of concern and action consists of human rights, peace, and democracy. Within this framework our efforts fall into three lines of work:

Legal and Juridicial
Information and Analysis
Education and Communication

Within these areas, we are engaged in a number of activities that answer to general and specific objectives:

Legal and Judicial Activities

Legal defense
information and judicial counseling
production and dissemination of legislative proposals
production and dissemination of educational materials to:
- Judges
- Army and Police Forces
- social organizations
- academic audiences
- non-governmental organizations (NGO's)

Education and Communication Activities

Training activities
- basic and second level courses
- specialized workshops
- promoters and leaders training
regional meetings with members of the civil society
production of training material
promotion, diffusion and systematization of our work
participation in the Peruvian Network in Education in Human Rights
production of radio programs as educational material

We have had our own weekly radio program since August 1994, on human rights and the everyday life of citizens.

Information and Analysis Activities

Database work
production and publishing of a monthly magazine named 'Ideele' specializing in democracy, human rights, violence and peacemaking (66 issues published by August 1994)
Annual balances

Activities Related to the National and International Promotion of Human Rights, Peace and Democracy

Support for local Human Rights Committees
active participation and support for the National Coordinator of Human Rights (CNDDHH)
organization of public events promoting debate about violence, peacemaking strategies and human rights in mass communication media
diffusing information to the international community and making them aware of human rights conditions in Peru

These activities allow us to:

provide services in order to support and answer to the actual demands and needs
diagnose problems and propose solutions in our specialties and areas of concern
promote peace, democracy, and human rights to the international community

IDL Fact Sheet

NAME                :   INSTITUTO DE DEFENSA LEGAL
                        (LEGAL DEFENSE INSTITUTE)

KIND OF INSTITUTION :   NON-PROFIT CIVIL ASSOCIATION,

LEGAL INFORMATION   :   Association Register: 6133
                        Libreta Tributaria  0G2454
                        R.U.C.: 1105441

LEGAL RESPONSIBLE   :   ERNESTO DE LA JARA BASOMBRIO

ACCOUNT NUMBER      :   US DOLLARS ACCOUNT NUMBER 49506, IN :
                        BANCO WIESSE LTDO.
                        AV. EMANCIPACION 245
                        LIMA 1
                        PERU  - SOUTH AMERICA


BOARD OF DIRECTORS  :   Director:   Ernesto de la Jara Basombrio
                        Sub-Director: Carlos Basombrio Iglesias
                        Members : Pilar Aguilar Malpartida
                                  Celeste Viale Yerovi
                                  Norma Rojas Noriega
                                  Isaias Rojas Perez

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES :   31

WORK AREAS      :   Three areas of work. Each one is managed by a
coordinator, who is part of the Board of Directors, concurrently with
three others persons democratically elected by all members of the
institute.

We have received two international awards, the "International Freedom Award 1992", of the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development of Canada, and, in 1993, the "International Human Rights Award" of the American Bar Association.

Email Addresses for IDL

Institution: idl@idl.org.pe

Library: cedoc@idl.org.pe (2000 titles on HR in Peru, South America, Intl. Law, etc.)

Ideele magazine: ideele@idl.org.pe Legal Area: penal@idl.org.pe Human Rights Education Area: educacio@idl.org.pe Information Area: banco@idl.org.pe postmast@idl.org.pe infor@idl.org.pe robarr@idl.org.pe isaias@idl.org.pe

Written by the Instituto de Defensa Legal

HTML by Catherine Hampton (ariel@best.com)

Created on August 13, 1994 / Last edited on June 22, 1995