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The Bartolomé de Las Casas Institute is a non profit organization founded in 1974 by the theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez and a group of professional Catholics who wanted to contribute to the process of integral freedom and human development in Peru from the Christian perspective of a preferential option for the poor.

Integral freedom implies that people work to strengthen democracy and encourage citizen participation from the perspective of justice and solidarity which recognizes the diversity which exists in the country and the promotion of consensus. This concept of development also implies a concept of real freedom which enables people to overcome the inhumane poverty in which the majority of Peruvian people live.

This process presupposes that poor people actively participate in the society, that they are not excluded or treated as objects but recognized and considered as subjects with human dignity with aspirations and a capacity to actively participate.

  • We respond with an integral proposal to the necessity for formation from Christian communities, social organizations, university students and young professionals so that they can contribute from the their different insertions to the building of democracy and promote a process of development which includes all Peruvians.

  • We work to show the link between the construction of democracy and integral human development among different groups in the civil society.

  • We promote dialogue and reflection on the Christian faith from the perspective of an option for the poor and its challenges for our world today.

  • We engage in reflection and discussion with different social and cultural groups within and outside of the country around the meaning of solidarity in order to promote just relationships between nations.

The institute works with five different groups of people. These are:

  • Community Development Leaders.
  • Pastoral Workers.
  • University Students.
  • Groups from the Civil Society.
  • International groups.

In each area of our work we network with other institutions to strengthen the social network and to have a major impact.

We form part of international networks such as Jubilee 2000 campaign, which works for debt reduction for poor countries, Economic Solidarity and the Committee for Adult Education in Latin America.

We also form part of many local and national networks.

We are one of the founding members of the movement “Para Que No Se Repita” (That it Will Not Happen Again) which is a network which lobbies for the implementation of the recommendations from the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

We work closely with the Centro de Estudios y Publicationes (CEP - Center for Investigation and Publications) whom we share the same objectives. We co edited the magazine SIGNOS and our other publications.