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At the direction of Conference President and Miami Mayor Manuel A. (Manny) Diaz, The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding five ’08 Mayors’ Action Forums between early August and early October in which America’s mayors will forge an action agenda for cities and metro areas to present to the next President of the United States. The five national events in five cities across the country are intended to prepare the Conference to present the next President with a set of priorities for action on urban/suburban problems that can be taken during the first 100 days of the new administration.

The Global Study on Homicide 2013 seeks to shed light on the worst of crimes — the intentional killing of one human being by another. Beyond resulting in the deaths of nearly half a million people in 2012, this form of violent crime has a broad impact on security — and the perception of security — across all societies.

This report focuses on interpersonal violence, which is violence that occurs between family members, intimate partners, friends, acquaintances and strangers, and includes child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and elder abuse.

Given the strong ties linking citizen security and the development of Latin America and the Caribbean, the Bank has been supporting efforts to tackle crime and violence. It has framed its work in citizen security through the establishment of specific guidelines (Operational Guidelines for Program Design and Execution in the Area of Civic Coexistence and Public Safety, GN-2535), which identify the Bank’s areas of support, as well as those outside its mandate and those for which it does not have a comparative advantage as a development institution.

A key message of the report is that Caribbean countries need to focus on a model of security based on the human development approach, whereby citizen security is paramount, rather
than on the traditional state security model, whereby the protection of the state is the chief aim.